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TALES OF TELAL 






TALES OF TELAL 


BY 

HANFORD Mf BURR 

Author of “Studies in Adolescent Boyhood/ 
“Donald McRea” and “Around the Fire’ 



THE SEMINAR PUBLISHING COMPANY 

SPRINGFIELD, MASS. 



Copyright, 1914 

BY 

The Seminar Publishing Company 


» 

<> W 



SEP 



1914 


CI,A:i80384 


4 



7U> . 


FOREWORD 


The oldest civilization of the world was cradled in 
Mesopotamia, the fertile alluvial plain between the Tigris 
and Euphrates. Here the cunning Accads discovered and 
developed the great fundamental arts — the molding and 
tempering of metals, the making of pottery, the baking 
of bricks, writing, mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, 
together with laws and institutions which are the wonder 
of the modern world. 

Within the last twenty-five years wonderful discoveries 
have been made by archeologists and explorers in the 
ruins of Babylon and Nineveh. Thousands of clay tab- 
lets, covered with cuneiform inscriptions, have been 
recovered and many of them have been translated, giving 
most wonderfully detailed information as to the customs, 
habits and institutions of ancient Babylonia and Assyria. 

On the imperishable clay tablets were written the 
exploits of kings and warriors and the accounts of small 
traders and farmers; charts of the heavens and plots of 
fields and irrigation dykes; epic poems of creation and 
the school exercises of children; codes of laws and love 
letters. The material is so abundant as to embarrass 
both the archeologist and the historian. 

The complete story of early Babylonia cannot be writ- 
ten as yet, but we have enough of it to arouse our pro- 
found admiration for these pioneers of civilization and 
to stir our imagination. 

Some five thousand years before Christ, Babylonia had 
a wonderfully developed civilization. Previous to that 


VI 


Foreword 


time there must have been thousands of years during 
which the first slow steps in human progress were made. 

The scenes of the following stories are laid in the dim 
half-lights of this dawn of civilization. Free use has 
been made of the discoveries of modern archeologists. 
The woof of fancy crosses a warp of fact. The Tales 
OF Telal supplement the stories of beginnings told in 
Around the Fire. 

The pen and ink sketches are by Mr. Gilbert N. Jerome, 
who has had great success in chalk talks to boys and who 
has designed these illustrations for easy reproduction on 
the blackboard. 


Hanford M. Burr. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Accad the Swordmaker 1 

II. Akki the Irrigator 18 

III. Nubta and Ardi, Builders 33 

IV. Gimil the Scribe 45 

V. Nidinti and the Magic Crystal . . .55 

VI. Tamal the Tamer of Wild Asses . . 65 

VII. Asta the Star-Gazer 78 

VIII. Adapa the Fisherman 88 

IX. Sargani the Gardener 103 


X. Tera Worshiper of Yahve (Jehovah) . 110 









TALES OF TELAL 


I. 

Accad the Swordmaker 


School was over for the day, but the scholars of 
Telal, priest of Bel, and teacher of the young princes 
of Babylon, lingered. The morrow was Sabbath, the 
sacred day of seven. On that day there were no lessons, 
for it was the high day of the great god Bel. Tonight, 
as was the custom of the teacher, he would take them to 
the shaded bank of the Tigris on which his garden bor- 
dered and tell them tales of beginnings. 

On every other day of the week the boys were eager 
to be gone, but on this day every face was turned towards 
the river and not towards the gate, for the tales of Telal 
drew them as honey draws the bee. 

Telal the teacher wore a flowing robe of white; 
Telal the priest, one of purple; Telal the teller of tales, 
one of red, and the boys looked eagerly thru the trees 
which shrouded the house for the flash of the red robe. 
They had long tired of their games and the sun had 
already sunk beneath the tree tops before they saw the 
flutter of red as Telal came towards them. 


2 


Tales of Telal 


It was part of the game which they played together 
that all suggestions of lessons and the work of the week 
should be left behind when Telal put on the red robe 
and passed from the school grove to the river bank. He 
was now Lai the story teller, and not Telal the teacher. 

According to their custom they lined up beside the 
path which led to the river while the priest in the red 
robe passed, and then followed him in silence to a mound 
which overlooked the river and faced the setting sun. 



In the center of the mound was a single tree whose 
gnarled trunk formed a natural chair. In this Lai seated 
himself and the boys stretched themselves on the ground 
before him. In silence they watched the setting sun and 
it was not till the blood-red ball of fire had sunk beneath 
the horizon that Lai spoke. Rising to his feet he 
stretched out both his hands to the west, while the boys 
knelt with faces to the ground, and prayed: 


Accad the Swordmaker 


3 


“O Lord of High Heaven, rest thee in the cool of the evening; 

Close thine eye in slumber while the sentinel stars keep watch; 

Gather strength, All-Seeing One, that thou mayest rule over the 
mighty ; 

Return in the morn. Light Giver, to enlighten us with thy 
wisdom.” 

And the princes answered: ‘‘O Bel, hear us! O Bel, 
hear us!” 

Then, at a signal from Lai, the chief of the princes 
took a sharp stick and drew a circle about the group and 
they chanted together: 

“Without the world that is, 

Within the world that was; 

Come, spirit of the rivers. 

Touch our eyes with finger cold. 

That we may see the things of old; 

Tell by the tongue of Lai, the seer. 

Of the dead who live in deathless deeds.” 

As the last words of the chant died away, a cool mist 
rose from the river and drifted towards them and they 
whispered to each other, “Hush ! He comes, the ageless 
one, to whom the past is as the present.” 

Then Lai began to speak, and his voice, low and quiet, 
seemed to proceed from the mist spirit that hovered 
above them. 

Before Babel was, and while her greatness was still 
a dream of Bel, the fathers of our fathers lived in a 
land nearer the birthplace of the Red King of heaven. 
It was not a land of rivers and fields, like this, but a 
land of great hills and mighty trees. Giants had piled 


4 


Tales of Telal 


great rocks, greater than the temple of Bel, upon each 
other till they reached up to high heaven. 

Our fathers did not live in houses of sun-baked brick 
but in caves in the mountain. They lived by hunting and 
not by tending flocks or tilling fields. They killed deer 
and buffalo for food and fought for their lives with 
wild beasts of the wood and wilder men from the land 
of Chun. Only the strong grew to be men and no man 
lived till his hair whitened. 

The land was big and men were few, but often the 
hunters came home empty-handed. The deer grew more 
scarce and arrows and spears rarely brot down the buf- 
falo and wild horse. Mothers crooning over the babes 
at their breasts wondered if there would be meat for 
them to eat. 

It was poor hunting when Accad became a man. His 
father had been killed by the yellow men from Chun. 
His mother had dug roots and picked berries thru the 
warm season and Accad had snared rabbits and birds, 
but as the cold grew stronger his mother grew weaker 
and he often felt the dog of hunger gnawing beneath 
his girdle. 

At last his mother brot out the great bow of his father 
and the pouch of flint-tipped arrows and his stone knife 
with handle of bone and gave them to him. “My son,” 
said Katha, “thou hast not grown to man’s strength nor 
man’s height, but thou must play the man’s part or we 
die. Prove thy father’s bow.” 

Then she took a shield of bufifalo’s hide and hung it on 
a tree and walked back ten paces. “Now draw the bow 
and shoot. If thy strength has come to thee thou canst 
pierce it.” So Accad took the great bow, taller than 


Accad the Swordmaker 


5 


himself, and after many struggles slipped the string in 
its notch. As Katha watched him her face grew gray. 
If he could scarce string the bow, how could he draw 
it so as to send the winged flint to the heart of the deer. 



Katha herself took the straightest of the arrows and 
gave it to the boy, with hands that trembled. “May the 
Great One help me,” muttered the boy as he fitted the 
arrow to the string. Then Accad pulled with all his 
strength and shot the arrow. It was well aimed, but 
the bow had only been half drawn and the arrow scarcely 
made a dent on the hard buffalo hide. 

With a groan Katha turned her back and went into 
the cave and Accad stood alone. He looked up into the 
gray sky. The Great One had not heard. Where was 
he? Perhaps he cared not. 

Taking the bow and the pouch of arrows Accad laid 
them at the door of the cave and turned towards the 
mountain which stood above them. 


6 


Tales of Telal 


High up on the mountain was a cave which no one but 
Accad had ever seen. It opened on a narrow ledge 
upon which only a wild goat would dare to walk. A 
grown man, even if he had had the courage to attempt 
it, could not have made his way over it, but the boy, with 
his slender body and clinging hands and feet, passed over 
it at will, unafraid of the great rocks beneath him. 

The mouth of the cave was so small and well hidden by 
vines that it could not be seen from the foot of the 
ledge, but inside it widened and many men could have 
stood upright in it. No one knew of the cave and Accad 
had not even told his mother where he so often went. 
It was his. He would not even share the knowledge of it. 

Swiftly and surely, tho with eyes downcast, Accad 
climbed to his den on the cliff. As he crowded close to 
the narrow ledge, he bethot him that when he grew to 
be as big as his father he could not come, and for a 
moment he was glad that he was small, but then he 
remembered that if he could not hunt the big game he 
would never grow to be a man. 

For a long time he sat at the mouth of the cave where 
the ledge broadened for a little and looked down at the 
wooded valley beneath him. In a little meadow by a 
stream he could see two deer browsing. Then his eye 
caught a glimpse of a hunter creeping thru the reeds 
like a fox. After a little the two deer raised their heads 
with a startled look and then with long bounds disap- 
peared into the wood. Some one else would be hungry. 
Then he drew his girdle more tightly about him and went 
into the cave and threw himself down on a bed of moss 
and slept. 


Accad the Swordmaker 


7 


Accad awoke shivering, to find himself in the dark. 
He peered out of the cave and saw the stars twinkling 
in the sky. He could not go back till daylight and he 
was hungry and cold — so cold! He beat his hands 
together and piled the moss about his feet, but it grew 
colder and colder. He must call the Fire Spirit as his 
father had taught him. 

In the back of the cave Accad had treasured some 
wood that had fallen down from the cliff above and 
lodged on the ledge in front. With shaking hands he 
drew it out to the mouth of the cave and piled it up 
against the black rock. Underneath the dry wood he 
tucked moss and twigs. Then he took from a crevice 
three pieces of wood carefully wrapped in a skin. One, 
about three hands long, was flattened and had a socket 
in the center. This he laid on the ground by the side 
of the dry moss and twigs and knelt upon it. Then he 
took a piece of wood as large as one’s fist and shaped 
so that it could be held by the teeth, and in which there 
was also a socket as in the first stick. Last, he took the 
third stick, shaped like a spindle, and fitted one point 
in the socket between his knees and the other in that 
of the block held by his teeth. Then he spun the sharp- 
ened stick between the palms of his hands. Faster and 
faster his hands flew and he pressed the hardwood drill 
into the soft wood beneath. His hands ached and burned. 
The sweat streamed from him and he forgot the cold, 
but there was no stopping. At last the wood beneath the 
drill began to powder and blacken and then glow. A 
tiny curl of smoke unwound itself. Then Accad dropped 
the drill and blew gently on the glowing wood powder 
and a tongue of flame appeared. With anxious care he 


8 


Tales of Telal 


fed it dry moss and twigs until the little flame became 
a big one and crackled fiercely. 

Before this Accad had not lighted a fire because he 
did not want to have the place of his cave known. Now 
he did not care, and piled on the dry wood with no 
thot for the future. 



The wind blew hard against the black-brown face of 
the cliff and drove the fierce flames against it like a blast 
from the bull-skin bellows of the smith’s forge. Accad 
had watched many a fire before and seen strange things 
at the hearts of them, but he had never seen a fire like 
this. The dried stumps of ancient trees under the lash 
of the mountain blast gave out a tremendous heat. The 
ledge became so hot that he had to go part way into the 
cave to escape the heat. Suddenly he saw something 
which startled him. The rock behind the fire, which had 
been black and rusty brown, now glowed as red as the 
fire itself and bluish streams trickled down its face, 
turning slowly black on the cold rock beneath. 

For a moment Accad was afraid. The rock itself 


Accad the Swordmaker 


9 


was burning. How could he escape, for the fire blocked 
his path? He crept back into the cool of the cave with 
beating heart. If this was to be the end it did not matter 
that he could not draw his father’s bow. 

After a little he peered out again to see if the rock 
still burned, but the fire burned lower and the wind now 
swept the dying flames away from the cliff, which showed 
dark as before but with new seams and furrows down 
its face. Wondering what had happened, Accad lay 
down and watched the flickering coals till his eyes closed 
and he fell asleep. 

As he slept he dreamed. In his dream he saw a giant 
shape rise out of the smoke of the fire. Black hair rose 
from his head like smoke from a fire of wet wood. His 
face and body shone red and the muscles of his great 
arms stood out like hills rising from a plain. In his 
hands he held a great knife as long as a man’s arm and 
as wide as three fingers. It had the blue-gray color of 
flint but it was not flint. Its edge was smooth and 
straight and had not the waving line of chipped stone. 
As the giant turned it in his hand, Accad saw that it 
was as smooth as the water in a hidden pool and as he 
drew near he could see his own face in it. From the 
point of the great knife dropped something red as blood 
and trembling smote the knees of Accad. 

Then a voice broke the silence, a voice which was like 
the roar of the fire god when he devours the forest. “I 
am Gibil, god of fire. In my hand I hold the key of 
life and of death. It shall bring to men joy and sorrow, 
riches and poverty. Because of it some men shall bless 
me and some men shall curse me, but to the man who 
can make it and use it, the sword shall bring power. 


10 


Tales of Telal 


“To thee, Accad, son of Ac, it is given to know the 
secret of the mountain. Thou art young; thou hast not 
grown to man’s strength, but thou hast cunning and 
courage and need.” 

Accad awoke, shaking with cold, in the half-light of 
early morning. The fire had died down and only smol- 
dering coals were left. Rain began to fall and drowned 
them and Accad crept into the cave to wonder what the 
dream might mean. The gods would show him a secret. 
The keepers of the secret were the rock and fire. Soon 
the rain stopped and he went out and looked carefully 
at the black face of the cliff where the fire had lapped it. 
In the heat it had sweat blood and the furrows still 
showed on its face. 

Wondering and perplexed, Accad stirred the wet 
ashes with his bare feet. Suddenly there came a sharp 
pain as if a thorn had pierced his foot and he looked 
down to see blood dripping from it. Forgetting the 
pain, he stooped down and began to scrape away the 
ashes, saying to himself, “The knife of the war god!” 
Soon he found it, but it did not look like the knife which 
he had seen in his dream. The red sweat of the rock 
had cooled in a little sand-lined cleft. It was rough as 
the rock which had given it shape, but it had a sharp 
point which had pierced his foot, and was heavier than 
any stone Accad had ever seen. He struck it on a rock 
and it gave out a sound such as he had never heard 
before; it was a sound which lingered in the ear and 
stirred the soul. It was the song of metal, but he only 
knew that it was not the song of the wood nor the stone. 

And as Accad held the rough bit of metal in his hand, 
he was sad and said to himself, “I thot the spirit had 


Accad the Swordmaker 


11 


given me the great knife of power, but I find only this,” 
and he dropped it on the stones at his feet. 

Again the sharp ringing sound. It seemed to call to 
Accad: “The secret is here. Find it.” 

Again he picked up the jagged bit of iron and looked 
at it more carefully. It had the shape of the rock cleft in 
which it had cooled. Why not chip out of the rock the 
shape of the great knife which he had seen in his dream 
and let the red sweat of the cliff cool in it? Accad had 
the secret but he must test it. He looked eagerly about 
him for wood. It was all gone. Then the hunger dog 
bit him. He must have food. He must gather more 
wood. 

Leaving the precious bit of black metal with his fire 
sticks, Accad started to make his way along the narrow 
ledge on the face of the cliff. When he had gone about 
half way he stopped suddenly. In the path coming to 
meet him was a mountain goat. They stood looking at 
each other for a moment. Neither could go back. Only 
one could go forward. The goat hesitated, then tossed 
his head and began to come slowly towards him. 

For an instant Accad closed his eyes and all his life 
passed before him in the flickering of an eyelash. Was 
this to be the end? Would his bones bleach on the 
stones below while the secret, his secret, lay hidden in 
the cave above him? No! It must not be! The blood 
rushed back from his heart and courage came to the 
brain. He opened his eyes and studied the face of the 
cliff. 

About half way between him and the goat was a 
short crevice parallel to the ledge on which he stood and 
just within reach of his hands. If he could reach that 


12 


Tales of Telal 


and pull himself up as the buck charged! Flattening 
himself to the cliff with outstretched arms, he worked 
his way forward, while the goat tossed his head and 
stamped his feet, making ready to charge, and yet hesi- 
tating. Accad kept his eyes fastened on the crevice. 
Would he ever reach it? At last, with a sobbing breath, 
his fingers found it and he drew himself up. The horns 
of the goat struck his feet as he passed under him and 
nearly swung him from his hold. Then there was the 
sound of clawing hoofs, silence for a few heart beats, 
a dull thud on the rocks far below, and then a longer 
silence, broken by the hoarse call of a vulture. 

At last with dizzy head and shaking limbs Accad made 
his way to safety and threw himself down to gain his 
strength again. The crying of the vultures roused him. 
The goat on the rocks beneath meant food for many days. 
He looked down and saw the gray body lying on the 
rocks beneath him and vultures circling about it. 

With hunger driving him, Accad scrambled down to 
where the body of the goat lay. Weak as he was from 
hunger, he cut out the entrails with his flint knife and 
lifted the carcass to his shoulders and staggered on with 
it. 

He came to the mouth of the cavern in which he and 
his mother lived, just as Katha was coming out, her eyes 
hot with famine fever. With a cry she dashed the long 
hair from her face and ran to meet him. “Thou art not 
gone to thy father and thou hast food.” 

Accad answered nothing, but dropped the carcass and 
fell beside it as the dead, and blackness swallowed him 
up. 


Accad the Swordmaker 


13 


By and by light came to him again. He felt water 
dripping on his face, the smell of roasting meat tickled 
his nostrils, and he opened his eyes to see his mother 
bending over him with water in the hollow of her hand. 

After the mother and son had eaten their fill, they 
carried the meat into the cavern and hung it in a cool 
place and Accad threw himself on a pile of skins and 
slept all thru the day. 

He awoke at sun setting to smell again meat broiling 
over a fire and rose to find his mother preparing food. 
He noted that her eyes did not seem so deep set in their 
hollows and that she had bound her hair smoothly away 
from her face as she had not done since his father had 
passed between the twin hills guarded by scorpion men. 

After they had eaten, Accad told his mother of his 
cave on the cliff, of the fire which he had built, of his 
dream, and how Gibil, god of fire, had appeared to him 
in a dream, and of the great knife whose edge was 
sharper than any flint shaped by the hand of man — the 
great knife which should rule all men. With a piece of 
charcoal he drew a picture of the sword of Gibil on the 
wall of the cave, and then told her of his search in the 
ashes for the frozen sweat of the rock and how it had 
stung his foot with its sharp point, and how he would 
make a knife like that in his dream by making a mold in 
the rock. 

While Accad talked, Katha looked fixedly at him with 
eyes reflecting the red of the fire light. “My son,” said 
she, after he had finished, “last night Ea, god of crafts- 
men, came to me in a dream and said, ^Be of good 
cheer, tho thy son cannot bend the bow of his father, he 
hath found the secret of the mountain, and the strong 


14 


Tales of Telal 


men shall come to him, bringing gifts, and shall bow down 
to him as a son of the gods and shall serve him, and 
there shall never lack in thy cave the choicest of the 
meat and the sweetest of the fruit and grain/ And when 
I awoke thou earnest with the goat upon thy shoulder.” 

The next day Accad gathered the driest and hardest 
wood which he could find and lowered it with thongs of 
hide to the ledge in front of the cave until the cave was 
nearly filled. 

And when he had wood enough he found a smooth 
place under the brown-black wall of the cliff and took 
charcoal and made a picture of the great knife of Gibil. 
Then he took a sharp pick of flint and chipped away the 
stone and polished it till the knife could have rested 
in it. 

After days of careful shaping, it was finished and all 
was ready for the testing. First, Accad cut in the mold 
the sign of the earth fire, the symbol of the fire stick, and 
then he prayed : “O Gibil, thou who devourest the 
wood and breakest the heart of the stone; thou who 
hast the secret of the mountain, show it to me, that I 
may make the great knife which shall rule men.” Then 
he spread fine sand in the mold and piled wood against 
the face of the rock. Last he cut grooves leading from 
the rock to the mold which he had made. 

When the night was dark and the men of his tribe 
were asleep in their caves, Accad again took the sacred 
fire sticks and lighted the pile of wood, and as the red 
flames swept upward and were driven by the wind 
against the rock, he bowed his head and waited. 

Again Adad sent a great wind from the river and beat 
the flames upon the face of the rock ; again the red sweat 


Accad the Swordmaker 


15 


poured down and filled the mold which Accad had made. 
When the fire died down he took water from the stream 
which trickled out by the mouth of the cave and poured 
it about the mold until it no longer steamed. 

With trembling hands Accad took a sharp stick and 
gently loosened the metal from the mold and there lay 
before him the sword of Gibil. He rubbed the sand from 
it and struck it with a piece of stone and it sang like a 
giant bee, hum-m-m-m-m-m, and the heart of Accad sang 
with it. 

But as he handled it he was not satisfied. It had the 
shape of the sword which he had seen in his dream, but it 
was not so bright and smooth and the edge was ragged. 
“What shall I do now, O Gibil?” cried Accad, but Gibil 
had gone his way on the red wings of the fire and 
answered not. Then Accad’s eye rested for a moment 
on the sand with which he had lined the mold and he 
took some and rubbed it on the face of the sword. After 
a little it began to grow bright and at last he could see 
his own face on its polished surface. 

For days Accad worked upon it with fine sand and 
close-grained stone, polishing, shaping, grinding, till at 
last it lay in his hand as he had seen it in his dream in 
the hand of Gibil. He tested its edge. It was as thin as 
a spider’s web, but harder than flint. He struck a piece 
of wood lightly and it fell apart as if by magic. When 
he felt the edge it was as smooth as ever. He grasped 
the sword and swung it above his head till it sang in the 
air. This was the death dealer. Nothing could stand 
against it. He alone could call it from the rock. 

And Accad looked down and saw the men of his people 
gathered at the bottom of the cliff looking up at him. 


16 


Tales of Telal 


And Katha stood among them and pointing upward 
with one hand commanded them with the other to do 
obeisance. And the men bowed down on their faces and 
cried, “Accad is the chosen one of Ea.” 



And Accad came down to them bearing the shining 
sword of Gibil in his hands and they stood about him, 
fearing and wondering. And Accad took a shield of hide 
so tough that no arrow of stone could pierce it, and 
thrust the sword thru it as if it were made of rushes. 
Then he smote down an oak staff as if it had been a reed 
and showed the men that the edge was not broken. 

When the sun had set, the men gathered for a council 
about a great fire and they sent the great men of the 
tribe to fetch Accad and his mother. After they had 
all eaten, Uren, son of Ur, a prince of the tribe, stood 
before Accad and said: “Ea hath chosen thee, son of 
Ac. He hath sent Gibil, him of the earth fire, to show 
thee how to melt the heart of Kurra, lord of the moun- 



Accad the Swordmaker 


17 


tain. Thou hast the secret of power. Having the sword 
of Gibil, neither man nor beast can stand before thee. 
Make thou swords for us and even the men of Gutium 
will flee before us. Be thou the swordmaker and we will 
be thy slaves. The finest of the kill shalt be thine and 
the choice of the booty.” 

So Accad became swordmaker and his people were 
known as Accads, the sword-bearers, and they never 
lacked for food or treasure and the fear of them went 
out thru all the land. 


11 . 


Akki the Irrigator 

At another time Telal led his pupils to the top of Babel, 
the mound of many tongues, from which could be seen 
the broad, fertile plain, now yellow with ripening wheat 
and veined with the canals which watered it. The sun 
had passed the western gates, but a full moon lighted the 
great fields of grain which looked like a sea of gold. 

For a long time they sat in silence. When the night 
wind of the river whispered in the tops of the palms, 
Telal began the story of Akki the Irrigator. 

:fc5ts3|:^ S|e5|'5|e5|' 

Time was when the broad plain beneath us was noth- 
ing but marsh and thicket. In the open places the gazelle 
and wild ox fed. In the jungle by the river banks lurked 
the lion and the wild boar. In the season of the rains 
it was a great lake with islands here and there and the 
animals had to flee to the hills. But when the summer 
sun dried the waters the grass and reeds and wild grain 
became as dry as tinder, and when Gibil put his torch 
to it every living thing between the two rivers perished. 

But for a time after the floods had subsided in the 
spring there was no place where food for cattle and sheep 
was so plentiful, and the shepherds came from east and 
west and north and south to pasture their flocks on the 
grass and grains. They fought bloody battles for the 
richest pasture and only the bravest dared to come. The 
lions from the jungle carried off the choicest of their 


Akki the Irrigator 


19 


flocks and sometimes the shepherds themselves, but still 
they came, for there was no land as rich as this. 

Among those who came to feed their flocks in the 
marshy plains of Aram was Zabal. And Zabal had five 
brothers and seven sons, all men of valor, and many 
daughters. And Zabal and his brethren chose the finest 
of the pasture for their flocks and drove off most of those 
who tried to take part of it. And Zabal married his 
daughters to the sons of those whom he could not drive 
away and made alliance with them, so that Zabal and his 
brethren and friends became so strong that the richest of 
the land was theirs to do with as they would. 

But they could not stay there when the waters of the 
river covered the pasture, and they had to drive their 
flocks to the high land to the north and east. And so it 
was that each year they had to fight for the rich pasture 
with shepherds who came from far and cared nothing 
for the word of Zabal. 

At last, when the weight of years began to bear heavily 
upon Zabal, he sent the young men to tend the flocks 
and drive away his enemies, and he sat longer at the 
door of his tent and thot of many things, and his thots 
grew more nimble as his feet moved more slowly. 

For a long time the dry sun had drunk up the water, 
and there was no green thing to be seen from the mound 
on which the tent of Zabal was placed except along the 
river banks and by stagnant pools. As he sat thinking 
there came to his ears the complaining of the cattle who 
could find no food. Their ribs showed thru their skins 
and there were great hollows over their bellies. Many 
would die before the rains came. Then there would be 
floods which would cover all the plain except a few 


20 


Tales of Telal 


mounds like that on which he sat. It had always been 
thus — at one season too much, at another too little, and 
only one short season between when there was neither 
too much nor too little. Did Ea hate men that he 
drowned them in water at one time and left them to 
perish with thirst at another? 

That night, as the brethren and sons of Zabal sat at 
the door of his tent, Zabal said to them: ‘"As the sun 
passed the pillars tonight, Bal the black-haired, who 
bears the great water skin, met him and shook his fist at 
him. Each night the moon tips her bowl more and more. 
Soon the rivers will overflow their banks again and there 
will be water everywhere. In three days from now drive 
the flock across the river and make ready to go to the 
hills.’’ 

For a time Zabal was silent with his head bowed and 
his hand buried in the white beard which flowed to his 
girdle, and then he spoke again : ‘‘But this time I will not 
go with you. For more seasons than I can count I have 
led the flocks to the hills and then to the plains and back 
again and I am weary. Zuru shall lead you. I will stay 
upon this mound. If the waters overtake me it matters 
not. Better that than the long journey to the hills.” 

For a time they tried to persuade Zabal to change his 
purpose, but they ceased when Zuru said, “His time has 
come. It matters little whether the death arrow finds 
him here or on the march.” After three days they 
gathered the flock together, and the women folded up the 
tents and made ready for the journey to the hills. As 
yet no rain had fallen, but dark clouds hung over the 
sky and the yellow water of the river began to move 
faster. 


Akki the Irrigator 


21 



And Zabal sat in the door of his tent and watched them 
drive the flocks thru the river. Each had bowed before 
him and said, “Ea be with you, father Zabal,” but no one 
offered to stay with him. He had not wished it and yet 
his heart was heavy within him when he thot of Akki, 
the son of his old age, and Nubta his twin sister. It 
would have been good to have them by him when he 
closed his eyes for the last sleep. He must charge Zuru 
to give them of the best, but already they had crossed 
the river, and a slow-rising cloud of dust rose from the 
other bank. 

For a long time Zabal sat in silence, brooding over the 
past. He lived again the days of his youth when he was 
as fleet as the gazelle. He fought again the battles of 
his manhood when all went down before him or fled. He 
traveled again the road to the hills and back to the plains 
till his head sank upon his breast and he fell asleep. 


22 


Tales of Telal 


He was awaked by the bleat of a full-uddered goat 
which had been left behind, waiting to be milked and 
seeming like the old man to be lonely. Rising heavily 
to his feet Zabal milked the goat, drank of the milk and 
sat down again to dream and watch. 

The clouds piled blacker and blacker in the sky ; the 
darkness deepened and rain began to fall, at first gently 
and then more heavily, and Zabal drew his cloak about 
him and went into the tent. For the first time since he 
was a child Zabal felt the grip of loneliness. He 
stumbled in the blackness of the tent and threw himself 
on the ground with a groan. For a moment he lay still 
listening to the beating of the rain upon the tent and 
then he sat up with a start. He was not alone. He 
reached out and found a little hand that nestled in his 
like a bird under its mother’s wing. Groping with his 
hands he made sure of what his heart had already 
whispered to him. Akki and Nubta had slipped away and 
hidden in his tent and had been left behind. They knew 
little of the dangers, they only knew that father Zabal 
found time to be kind when others forgot. 

What should he do? They must not perish with him, 
but he could not take them out into the storm. He must 
wait till the light. So he lay down beside them and 
listened to their quiet breathing between the bursts of 
the rain. 

In the early morning before the children had awaked 
Zabal looked out. The rain fell heavily and a thick mist 
hid from sight everything but the mound on which the 
tent stood. He went down to the foot of the mound, 
caring nothing for the rain which beat upon him. The 
water had already reached the lower levels and 'he 


Akki the Irrigator 


23 


splashed in it ankle deep. It was too late to cross the 
river. Only Ea could save the children and no one knew 
what was in the heart of Ea. 

When he came back to the tent he found a small flock 
of goats which had taken refuge there from the water, 
and they rubbed their noses in his hand and seemed to 
welcome him. Here at least was food till the water rose 
above the mound. But would it rise above the mound? 
He remembered having seen little islands in the midst 
of the waters as he had looked down upon them from the 
hills. This might be one of them. When he entered the 
tent Akki and Nubta were awake, trying not to look 
frightened when they found themselves alone and heard 
the roaring of the storm without. They welcomed Zabal 
with a shout. '‘See, father Zabal. We slipped away and 
hid. We will stay with you and watch the waters rise. 
It is long to the hills and we like to be with you,” cried 
Nubta. 'T am hungry,” said Akki. 

And Zabal drew a goat into the tent and milked it and 
gave to the children, and as they drank it and smiled on 
him his heart grew warm again, and he felt strength 
coming back to him. After all he was not as old as 
Methu. If Ea willed he would live till Akki, the well- 
beloved, became a man. 

All thru the next day and the day following Zabal 
watched the water slowly rising about the mound. On 
the third day the water came no higher tho the rain fell. 
On the fifth day the mist raised for a little and they 
looked out on a sea of yellow, swirling water, with the 
tops of mounds like that on which they were, rising here 
and there like islands. And the clouds lifted from the 
face of Zabal as they had lifted from the face of the 


24 


Tales of Telal 


waters. So long as the goats could find food they could 
live. 

And Nubta said to Akki, ‘‘Father Zabal made merry 
this day. I think the waters will not come up and devour 
us. Were you afraid, Akki?” “Men are never afraid,” 
answered Akki. 

“But I stayed with you, Akki, and I did not cry.” 

“I forgot, Nubta, that you were a woman.” And then 
Nubta cried a little tho she smiled, too, and Akki 
wondered. 

Very soon Akki and Nubta tired of staying in the tent, 
and when Bal closed his water skin for a little they 
explored the mound and waded in the shallow water 
about it. They found the hiding places of wild fowl and 
Akki set snares for them, and they had flesh to eat as 
well as goat milk. 



As they wandered about, it was Akki who discovered 
that there were many smaller mounds with their heads 
just above or just below the water, and they formed a 
large circle about the large mound on which they lived. 

“Look, father Zabal,” said he, “the big mound hath 
many children and they all pitch their tents about him. 


Akki the Irrigator 


25 


We will call this mound Zabal and the two smaller ones 
near by Nubta and Akki/’ 

And Zabal looked hard at the children and then at the 
mounds rising out of the waters. ‘‘It is a sign from the 
Great One. These and these,” stretching out his hands, 
“are the children of Akki and Nubta.” 

And Akki loved the water. He waded in it ; he swam 
in it. He sat beside it and let it run thru his fingers and 
looked out on it wondering. To him it was a living thing 
and Nubta often heard him talking to it as if it had ears, 
but she could never hear what he said, and when she 
asked him he would only shake his head and turn away. 



At last when food for the goats was almost gone and 
Zabal had had to kill some of them for food, the rain 
stopped, the clouds lifted and the sun looked out more 
often. Then the waters began to fall and Zabal sat at the 
door of the tent and said, “We shall live and not die.” 


26 


Tales of Telal 


And Zabal took the finest of the goats and killed it and 
made a fire of driftwood which he carefully dried in the 
sun. And he took the heart of the goat and laid it on the 
fire and when the smell of its burning rose in the air he 
raised his hands and cried: “Ea, thou art the heart of 
every living thing. Without thee we cannot live. As the 
smoke of our offering rises to thee so do our prayers. 
Thou hast saved our lives from the floods of water. 
Cause thou the spirit of the waters to speak to Akki and 
make of his children and the children of Nubta a great 
people.” 

Day by day the waters fell and Akki and Nubta played 
along the banks. They made little mounds and hollows in 
the mud which the waters left, and then they poured 
water in the hollows till the mounds were all but covered. 
And Nubta talked as swiftly as her fingers moved, but 
Akki was silent as if he heard nothing. “Speak,” cried 
Nubta, “I am tired of thy stillness.” 

“There is no need,” said Akki, “thou canst talk for 
two.” And Zabal wondered as he watched them. “The 
boy will soon be a man, but he plays in the mud like a 
child. Why does he not shoot with the bow and arrow 
and hurl the javelin so that he can defend the flock and 
keep off his enemies as I and our fathers have done?” 

As Zabal pondered these things Nubta came to him 
and said, “Father Zabal, Akki will not talk to me, but 
sits silent or talks to the spirit of the river. I hear 
nothing, but he hears what I do not.” 

“It may be,” answered Zabal, “that Akki is one of 
those to whom the hidden things are uncovered,” and 
they watched Akki in silence. 


Akki the Irrigator 


27 


For a time Akki sat with his face in his hands, motion- 
less. Then he jumped to his feet and began to work 
swiftly in the mud. He cleared a level place and then 
shaped mounds and hollows as he and Nubta had done 
before, but this time he connected the mounds with banks 
of clay which he shaped with his hands. Then he dug 
a trench and let the water in about the mounds, but the 
banks kept the water from going thru, so that the hollow 
inside the mounds and the connecting dikes was dry tho 
water surrounded it on all sides. 



Then Akki sat down and looked about restlessly. 
“Nubta,” he called, “come. I hear the spirit of the waters 
better when you are near.” And Nubta ran and sat down 
beside him and waited in silence, but Akki said nothing, 
and looked, not at the waters, but at her with questioning 
in his eyes. 


28 


Tales of Telal 


And Nubta said to herself, ^Tt may be that the spirit of 
the waters will speak to me,” but she looked not at the 
great water which passed the mound, but at the little pool 
in which Akki’s mounds stood. 

At last the spirit which worketh within the hearts of 
the finders moved within her, and she stooped down and 
made a small opening thru one of the dikes and let the 
water into the hollow. Then she filled it with clay again 
and made a trench to draw off the waters on the outside 
and the hollow became a bowl full of water while all 
was dry about it. 

And Akki leaped to his feet with a shout : ‘The secret 
of the waters is ours. Listen, father Zabal and Nubta. 
Water is the life of every living thing. See the grass and 
grain leaping to new life after the touch of the waters. 
But now there is too much water in the season of the 
rains and too little in the season of the heat. Why not 
build great banks as I have built little ones and keep back 
the water when there is too much and hold it in great 
hollows till there is too little, as Nubta has done?” 

Then he took his finger and made many little channels 
and all leading to the hollow filled with water, and he let 
the water into them and it spread over the ground and 
was swallowed up. And Zabal wondered greatly. “Ea 
has heard us. The children of Akki and Nubta shall no 
longer journey to and fro from the hills to the plains and 
from the plains to the hills seeking pasture, but shall live 
between the rivers. And the waters shall be their 
servants, doing their bidding, and there shall be food for 
a great multitude.” 

And after the waters had left the plains and the grass 
was green for the cattle, the brethren of Zabal returned 


Akki the Irrigator 


29 


with their flocks. But the journey had been long and 
many had fallen by the way, and robbers had taken some 
of the best of the flocks and smitten some of the men. 
As they went there was much grumbling among them. 
“It was not so,” said they, “in the days of our father 
Zabal. Our enemies fled before us and there was food 
for man and beast.” And Zuru sulked in his tent. 

When they had crossed the river and came to the place 
of camping there stood the tent of Zabal as of old, and 
Zabal stood at the going in and by him were Akki and 
Nubta. 

And the brethren of Zabal put their hands before their 
faces and bowed themselves and cried, “Have the scor- 
pion men let thee and thy children return from the land 
beyond the two pillars? Behold we are thy servants. 
Do with us as thou wilt.” 

And the eyes of Zabal shone like those of an eagle and 
he stood before the tents erect like the horn of a unicorn, 
and he laid his right hand on the shoulder of Akki and 
his left on the shoulder of Nubta. “I, Zabal, have come 
back from the land of secrets. Listen, to Akki and Nubta 
has been given the secret of the waters. They are the 
chosen ones of Ea. Do as they bid you and ye shall live 
and become a great people. Obey them not and you shall 
dry up like plucked grass in the heat of the sun.” 

“But Akki is only a boy,” growled Zuru, “and Nubta is 
not a woman grown, and when have men done as children 
and women bade them?” 

And Zabal answered, “The wise will hear when Ea 
speaks, be it by the voice of a child or a woman. Know 
you not that Ishtar is queen of heaven ?” 


30 


Tales of Telal 


But the brethren of Zabal shook their heads and 
answered, “Rule thou over us, father Zabal, as afore- 
time.” And Akki and Nubta whispered to him, “It is 
better so.” 

Then Zabal said to them : “But if I rule over you, I will 
not lead you back to the hills and make the long journeys 
with the flocks. Ye shall stay here in the wet season as 
in the dry, and ye shall build walls to keep back the waters 
when the river floods. Ye shall dig ditches to carry the 
water of the river to the grass when the sun burns it up. 
There will be no slumbering in the shade while the flocks 
feed. There will be hard labor for all. The sweat will 
pour from your faces like rain and your backs will bend 
under heavy burdens. 

“But there will be food for man and beast. None shall 
perish from thirst in long journeys thru the desert, and 
you shall become a great people and the great men of the 
earth shall pay tribute to you. 

“Choose you this day. Will you follow the wandering 
flocks or dwell in Ed, the garden of Ea?” 

And the people murmured among themselves and some 
took themselves to Zuru and said, “We will live as our 
fathers have done,” but the young and the strong gathered 
about Zabal. 

And Zabal said to Zuru, “Go thou with those that are 
with thee to the north. Ea hath given this land to us and 
our children.” 

Then the brethren of Zabal who hearkened to his voice 
pitched their tents about his as aforetime, and there were 
no murmurings or disputings among them, but they all 
did as Zabal commanded them, and Akki and Nubta were 
hands and feet to Zabal. 


Akki the Irrigator 


31 


And all did according to the word of Akki, but Zabal 
gave the commands to the people so that they might not 
say, ‘‘A child rules over us.” 



And they built walls of clay and rushes to keep the 
water back. They connected the smaller mounds which 
surrounded the great mound on which they pitched their 
tents so that there should be a place for their flocks when 
the waters rose. 

When at last the sun hid its face and the rain fell and 
the yellow waters of the river rose about them, many were 
afraid and said, “Would that we had gone with Zuru.” 
But Zabal said to them, “Am not I alive ? Did the waters 
swallow up Akki and Nubta?” And they were com- 
forted. 

And Akki, with tireless feet and searching eye, followed 
the dikes, and when the water tried to break thru, he and 
the young men who were with him fought back the water. 


32 


Tales of Telal 


And Ea was with them, and the water prevailed not 
against them, so that when the sun looked thru the clouds 
again and the waters slank back to the river like a fox to 
his hole, it was well with them and the cattle were as fat 
and well-favored as in the time of full pasture. 

With the passing of the seasons strength and wisdom 
came to Akki, and when Zabal passed between the two 
hills to the land of his fathers, Akki became the chief of 
the people. And he taught them how to make the waters 
their servants and how to grow grain in the plains, and 
he was called ‘'Akki the Irrigator.’’ 

And the well-watered ground bore such an abundance 
of wheat and corn and barley that there was more than 
food for all tho they multiplied exceedingly, and when 
the children of Sem came from the south hungering and 
begging bread, saying, “Give us food and we will be thy 
servants,” Akki answered, “Let them come. The work 
is great and there is no lack of food.” 

“And so,” said Telal, rising, “a great nation grew in 
the land between the rivers. You see beneath you the 
dikes and ditches which Akki planned to hold and guide 
the waters, and the mound on which we stand is where 
Zabal pitched his tent.” 

“But what of Nubta?” asked one of the pupils of 
Telal. “That,” answered the teacher, “is another story.” 


III. 


Nubta and Ardi, Builders 

Again when the work of the week was finished and 
Sabbatu, the day of rest for the heart, drew near, Telal 
led the young princes beyond the walls of the city of 
Babel, to the lowlands where bricks were made. The 
brickmakers were still at work cutting reeds and mold- 
ing bricks and laying them in the sun to dry, or arrang- 
ing them on shelves in a great kiln which later would be 
fired with dry reeds. Most of the houses were built of 
sun-dried bricks, but the temples and the houses of the 
rich had fire-baked bricks, which were very much harder. 

After he had shown the young princes the brickmaking 
Telal took them to a cool spot on the river’s bank and 
told them the story of Nubta and Ardi. 

H/i 

Now Akki the Irrigator was a great man and did 
many things and Nubta saw him only at the sun-rising 
and the sun-setting, and Nubta was lonely. Many suitors 
came asking the hand of Nubta, but Nubta shook her 
head and said, “There is no one like Akki,” and Akki 
answered, “No man shall take her against her will.” 

But the time came when Akki took a wife and Nubta 
had to live in a tent by herself. And the wife of Akki 
did not love Nubta and said, “She was well called 
Nubta, ‘the bee,’ for there is a continual buzzing where 
she is and her words sting.” 


34 


Tales of Telal 


And Nubta was sad and wished that she might take 
one of her many suitors, but she could not decide which 
one. Now Nubta was more beautiful than ever, but 
the women cared not and were afraid of her stinging 
words. The young men looked at her and shook their 
heads and married other women. 

And Akki was troubled, for it was a shame among 
the Sumerians for a woman to be unwed, and he chose 
husbands for Nubta, but she would have none of them, 
saying, “I will choose for myself.” 

And the wife of Akki said to him, “If I were a man 
and the chief of my people, I would make the women 
do as I pleased.” But Akki shook his head and said, 
“You do not know Nubta. She hath the spirit of a man 
within her breast as well as the heart of a woman, and 
she is one of the chosen of Ea, as father Zabal declared.” 

And the wife of Akki answered, “You are afraid of 
her. I am glad that I am only a woman.” But Akki 
kept his own counsel and Nubta went her way as before. 

But Nubta was restless and unhappy and seemed 
always like one who looked for something which she 
could not find. And often sharp thots stung her when 
wandering alone. “The spirit of Ea came to me as well 
as to Akki and he is a great man and a chief and I am 
less than a woman. The women stick out their tongues 
at me and the men — Bah! they are like driven cattle.” 
And Nubta sat down by a clear pool and studied her 
face in it. There was no woman more beautiful among 
her people and she had the courage of a man, but she 
was alone and unhappy. 

As Nubta sat brooding by the pool she scooped clay 
from the bank and shaped it in her hands and its cool- 


Nubta and Ardi, Builders 


35 


ness seemed to heal the fever of her blood and she forgot 
her unhappiness as she shaped it in varied forms. At 
last she laughed aloud as she made the face of the wife 
of Akki in the clay and then with a touch here and a 
pinch there made it ugly and old. “Poor Akki,’’ she said, 
“but you are a man and can do things, while I — ” 

“While you are the most beautiful woman in Aram,” 
said a voice behind her, and Nubta saw behind her Ardi 
of the people of Sem. 



At first she was afraid and then she was angry because 
she had been afraid and her words had stings. “What 
do you mean, slave, by spying upon me, the sister of 
Akki?” 

But Ardi ca^ed no more for her words than the tor- 
toise for the sting of the bee. Still he drew no nearer and 
stood with bowed head so that she could not see his 
face. “Yes, I am the servant of Akki, but also of 
Nubta.” 

And Nubta saw that Ardi was taller by a head than 
her people and tho he stood bowed before her she could 
look up into his face. As she looked her pride and 


36 


Tales of Telal 


anger vanished. The eyes that looked into hers were 
dark and deep set under heavy brows, but they were 
kindly and respectful and they had a look which she had 
seen in no man’s eyes except those of Zabal and Akki. 
They were the eyes of the seeker in whom Ea hath 
planted the seed of unrest. He was one of the seers, a 
baru, one who must ever look for what others could not 
see. And her heart warmed towards him, but she said 
nothing, still molding the clay in her fingers. 

And Ardi seeing that she was no longer bitter against 
him said: ‘Thou art the sister of Akki, the chief, but 

there is a wife in the tent of Akki. Thy beauty and thy 

wisdom set thee apart from the women of thy race. 
Thou art lonely. I have watched thee when the tears 
fell like the spring rains and I longed to comfort thee 
and dared not. Nay, do not be angry. It was well that 
some one followed thee, for more than once the yellow 
lion had marked thee for his prey. Had you not been 
lost in your dreams you would have heard the song of 
my arrow as it smote the hunter of men. Thou art a 
woman apart. I am a man apart. The elders of my 

people have cast me out because I care more for the 

things that are to be than the things that are. The boys 
stick out their tongues at me after I have passed and I 
hear men murmur as I draw near, ‘Lo, the dreamer 
cometh. El doth trouble him with dark thots.’ But 
they know not that I seek for light.” 

And Ardi bowed his head upon his breast and turned 
as if to go, but Nubta spoke to him, and it was in a 
voice which no one, not even Akki, had heard before: 
“Thou, too, a dreamer of dreams? Tell me what thou 
dost see when the spirit of Ea moves within thee.” 


Nubta and Ardi, Builders 


37 


When Ardi came towards her again Nubta motioned 
to him to sit down on some reeds at her feet and she 
studied his face as he answered: “Daughter of Zabal, I 
have told no one of the things I see in dreams, not even 
the mother who bore me, but there is something in thy 
face which brings forth the hidden thot to thee as the 
rain the planted grain. Thy people and mine live in 
tents made from the skins of animals and of mats of 
reed, but these are the dwellings of shepherds who fol- 
low their flocks. At the command of Akki the clay 
holds back the waters and they become our servants, but 
even Akki lives in a tent of skins as did his fathers. I 
see in my dreams great buildings of clay which shall 
keep out the rain and the sun, buildings which shall be 
higher than the palm and bigger than the mound of 
Zabal. 

“See,” and Ardi took clay from the bank and shaped 
four walls and covered it with a roof of rushes and 
made a door for entrance and windows for light. 

Then he set it in the sun to dry. “The heat of the sun 
will dry and harden it, but when the rain comes it 
will soften again. Big buildings such as I see in my 
dreams could only be built of small squares of clay, 
but I must find some way to make the bricks stick 
together and to keep the water from softening them. 
Each day I pray to El the revealer, but the secret is 
hidden from me.” 

As Nubta looked at the bowed head of Ardi and saw 
how his whole frame drooped like a palm by a dry water 
course, a great longing to comfort him and help him came 
to her. Since Akki had grown to be a man and had 
taken a wife there was no one who needed her. The 


38 


Tales of Telal 


great longing in Nubta’s heart was to be needed. It 
was true that Ardi belonged to the children of Sem 
whom her people looked down upon and called servants, 
but there was no man of the Sumerians who was so tall 
and well-favored as this man and the heavy brows and 
high forehead were shaped for thot; he was a seeker, a 
seer, and he needed someone to uphold him, to believe in 
him while he followed his vision. 



Then a thot crept into her mind which made her 
draw back a little. “Is there no one, thy mother, thy 
sister, some one of thine own people, who has faith in 
thee?” 

“There is no one,” answered Ardi sadly. 

And Nubta came a little nearer to him and said, “Come 
hither tomorrow at the same hour. I will pray to Ea, 
the holder of secrets. It may be that he will show me 
the secret which is hidden from El.” 



Nubta and Ardi, Builders 


39 


‘'There is but One,” replied Ardi, “he whom thou 
callest Ea, my people call El, but it may be that he will 
reveal to thee what he has hidden from me. At thy 
words new life comes to me as to a thirsty traveler who 
has come to a spring of sweet water in the desert. May 
the blessing of El be with thee. I will return on the 
morrow.” 

Ardi bowed low and walked swiftly away, looking 
neither to the right hand nor the left, but there was a 
light in his face. 

And Nubta sat long before the little house of clay 
with her face between her hands. If she prayed it was 
in silence, but fine lines of thdt wrinkled her brow as 
she studied the clay. 

At last there came to her from the hidden places of 
the soul a thot. She rose swiftly and went to a spot 
in the reeds which she had discovered only a few days 
before. From the top of a low mound there oozed a 
black, sticky, strong smelling substance, which slowly 
hardened as it trickled down the side. At the bottom it 
was nearly as hard as stone. 

With difficulty Nubta filled the shell drinking-cup 
which she carried with the soft bitumen and hurried back 
careless of what clung to her feet and hands. Then she 
carefully covered the clay house with pitch and hid it 
where no one would find it. 

It was a long time before Nubta could take away the 
stain of the pitch from her feet and hands with fine sand 
and water, but she cared not, and as she came to her tent 
that night she sang like a bird by the water courses and 
Akki was glad, but the wife of Akki peered out of the 
tent and muttered, “I wonder what she has been doing.” 


40 


Tales of Telal 


On the morrow Nubta was at the appointed place long 
before Ardi, and when he came he found her looking 
fixedly at the little house of clay, now covered with a 
dark coat of bitumen. 

Nubta seemed to be looking only at the clay, but she 
saw, as women see without looking, that the eyes of 
Ardi were fixed on her, and not on the work of her 
hands. 

“Do you not care to see what I have done?” said 
Nubta. 

“Seeing thee I forgot all else,” answered Ardi. 



If Nubta was displeased she made no sign, but com- 
manded him to bring water from the pool near by and 
pour it on the clay. And Ardi did so. Again and again 
he filled the shell with water, but to no purpose. The 


Nubta and Ardi, Builders 


41 


hard pitch defended the clay from water as a shield 
from the sword of the enemy. 

Then Ardi bowed down before Nubta: “O beloved of 
El, thou findest the hidden things as the bee finds honey. 
Behold, I will build a house of clay, binding the squares 
together with pitch and covering the wall with it. And 
it shall be larger than the tent of Akki, so that one may 
stand by the walls without stooping. I will cover it with 
poles and reeds so that the rain and sun may not beat in. 
When it is finished and I have spread upon the floor 
the skins of the lions I have slain, I will go to Akki and 
say, ‘Give me Nubta to wife, for my soul cleaves to her, 
and she shall live in a great house of clay that the waters 
cannot eat.’ ” 

“Ask Akki if you will,” answered she, “but it were 
better to ask Nubta first. Show me the house that thou 
wouldst build.” 

And Ardi knelt down by the bank of clay and 
fashioned a house, and Nubta sat hard by and said, 
“There shall be a door facing the south and a window in 
the east and the west.” 

And Ardi built his house on the piece of land which he 
had bought from Akki, and as he shaped the walls of 
blocks of dried clay set in pitch, his people and the people 
of Nubta gathered about and made merry, but Nubta 
went not with them and Akki said nothing. “It may be,” 
thot he, “that Ea hath spoken to him also.” 

And the mother of Ardi shook her head and said, 
“Alas! that a son of mine should be smitten with folly. 
Doth he think that he is wiser than the fathers?” 

When the walls had dried in the sun, Ardi covered 
them with pitch. And Ardi lived in the house which he 


42 


Tales of Telal 


had built and took Nubta to wife, and the people 
wondered. 

But the wife of Akki shook her head and said, “Can 
you yoke together two wild asses of the desert? Wait, 
the house of clay will not be large enough to hold them, 
and when the rain comes, Nubta will come to ask shelter 
of Akki.^’ 

The grain grew to full height, turned yellow and was 
gathered, but still Nubta and Ardi dwelt together in the 
house of bricks, and those who passed by heard always 
the song of Nubta, and the face of Ardi was that of a 
man who had found a spring in the desert. 

At last the sun hid his face, the sky became as pitch 
and the rain fell, at first lightly and then heavily as if the 
goatskin of Bal had been opened wide, and the people 
laughed and said to each other, “When Bal holds his 
hand we will go and see what the waters have done to 
the house of Ardi.’’ 



When it was light they gathered about the house of 
Ardi and rubbed their eyes to be sure they were awake 
and not dreaming. The house of Ardi stood as afore- 
time, and he stood at the door while Nubta sang within. 


Nubta and Ardi, Builders 


43 


And Akki called the elders of the people and said to 
them : “Our fathers tended their flocks in the wilderness, 
but the secret of the waters was revealed to me, Akki the 
Irrigator. You no longer wander like the wild ass of the 
desert seeking pasture. The waters serve you and there 
is food for man and beast. You have called me the 
chosen of Ea and made me a great one among you. But 
Ea hath other secrets than that of the waters. To Ardi 
hath he shown the secret of the clay and the pitch. Let 
him also be a great one among us, and build houses for 
us and our gods.*' 

And they called Ardi and said to him, “Build houses 
for us also, that the waters cannot wash away, and we 
will be hands and feet for thee and thou shalt have of the 
finest of the grain and the fattest of the flock.” 

And Ardi answered, “El, whom ye call Ea, hath 
showed me the secret of the clay, but thru the eyes 
of Nubta the sister of Akki. Together we will build 
houses for the people and the word of Nubta shall be as 
the word of Ardi and the riches of Nubta shall be as 
the riches of Ardi. There shall be no difference.” 

And Nubta and Ardi, and those who helped them, built 
houses for the people, and a temple for Ea and another 
for El, and the people multiplied exceedingly, and a city 
grew up about the hill of Zabal, and no one was greater 
than Ardi and Nubta, not even Akki the Irrigator. 

When they would build a great house for El, the 
spirit of the revealer spoke again to Nubta, wife of Ardi, 
and showed her how to bake the bricks in fire and make 
them as hard as stone so that neither water nor fire could 
prevail against them. But before they baked the brick 


44 


Tales of Telal 


in the kiln, they stamped on each the names “Nubta and 
Ardi/^ 

“And this,” said Telal, rising and handing them a 
square of baked clay, “is one of them. See the name 
stamped upon it. 



“And it was from the time of Nubta that the women of 
Babel were as men before the law and could own 
houses and lands and inherit them and leave them to 
whom they would. But such is not the custom among 
other peoples.” 



IV. 


Gimil the Scribe 

At another time Telal took the young princes to the 
great library at Borsippa and he showed them the scribes 
at work writing many things on clay tablets. Then he 
led them to a quiet place and taking a stylus such as the 
scribes used in their writing he told them the story of 
Gimil the Scribe. 

In the days before the years were counted men knew 
not how to write their thots upon the clay and papyrus 
as you have seen the scribes do. They could only make 
rude pictures of men and things such as you have seen 
in the museum of the library. But Gimil taught men to 
use the stylus so that the deeds and words of great men 
could be read by those who came after them. 

Now EaNandu, the great king, had conquered many 
peoples and the fear of him was upon them all. And the 
people who were subject to EaNandu built a city for him 
and a great house to dwell in and a temple for his god. 
None was so great as he. Nothing which his heart de- 
sired was denied him. But EaNandu was not happy. 

^‘When I have passed between the mountains which the 
scorpion men guard, who shall know of my greatness ? It 
will be as if I had not been.’* 

And EaNandu caused flat stones to be brot from the 
hill country and men who could grave pictures upon 
them. And they made likenesses of the king, of his 
house, the temple which he had built and many other 
things. 


46 


Tales of Telal 



But when EaNandu saw the pictures he was very- 
angry with the gravers. “Who shall know from these 
that it is I, EaNandu, who have done all these things?” 

And EaNandu commanded his servants to throw the 
men into a clay pit, saying, “Ye shall surely die of 
hunger if ye do not learn how to make my name and 
deeds live after me.” 

And the gravers said to one another, “We are dead men. 
All but the gods are forgotten. We can make pictures on 
stone, but who shall know in the time to come whose 
pictures they be ?” 

When the men looked at the walls of the pit they saw 
that they were steep and slippery and no man could 
climb them. If three men stood one on another the top- 
most man could not reach the edge of the pit. The clay 
was so hard that it could not be dug away with the 
hands. Hope left them and they cast themselves down 
to die. 



Gimil the Scribe 


47 


Now there was among them a lad named Gimil, son of 
Nuru the stonecutter. His father had brot him saying, 
“Surely the great king will make us rich,” but now he 
wept. “Would that I had left him with his mother 
among the hills.” 

At last the men fell asleep, but Gimil was hungry and 
he feared the lizards and snakes which crawled about the 
bottom of the pit. 

When the moon rose and shined into the pit Gimil 
found a stick and he beat away the crawling things. But 
when he lay down to sleep they came about him again. 
So he took the stick and began to make pictures on the 
clay walls to keep himself awake. 



As he drew pictures of animals and men of many kinds 
he forgot that he was hungry and that the dark ones 
waited for him. 


48 


Tales of Telal 


In the morning Nazin, son of EaNandu, came to the 
edge of the pit and looked down and he saw the pictures 
which Gimil had drawn on the clay and he called to him, 
“Did you make them 

“The spirit which lives within me took my hand and 
I made them,” answered Gimil. 

“Make more,” commanded Nazin. 

Then Gimil made a picture of the pit with the men 
lying in it and a face like that of Nazin at the edge of it; 
and he made another picture of men bearing water and 
food on their backs. 

And Nazin went away and sent men with food and 
drink for the men in the pit, but he did not tell his father, 
EaNandu. 

For many days Nazin went each morning to the pit and 
Gimil made pictures for him upon the clay and he sent 
food and drink, and when EaNandu sent to find what had 
happened to the men whom he had caused to be cast 
into the pit, he learned that they were alive and that their 
flesh had not wasted away. And EaNandu marvelled. 
“No man in my kingdom would dare to give them to eat. 
It may be that a spirit hath done this.” 

And the king went to the pit and called to them, “How 
is it that ye are alive after these many days?” And the 
men were afraid and answered nothing, but Gimil spoke 
to the king and said, “Ea hath sent his raven each day 
and kept us alive.” 

Then Nazin showed his father the pictures which Gimil 
had made on the walls of the pit. “Who taught thee 
and gave cunning to thy fingers ?” said the king. 

“Nin Nidin, god of them that make pictures,” an- 
swered Gimil. 


Gimil the Scribe 


49 


And EaNandu commanded his servants to bring up 
Gimil from the pit and when he stood before him he said 
to him, “If Nin Nidin be thy teacher let him show thee 
how to picture names and words so that those who come 
after may read. Then shalt thou write of the greatness 
of EaNandu upon the clay and upon the rocks and thou 
shalt be a great man ; thy people shall be free. Till then 
thy father and thy people shall remain in the pit and Ea 
shall feed them.’^ 

And Nazin said to his father, “Give him to me and I 
will give him clay and smooth stones to work upon.” 
“Do with him as you will,” answered the king, “only see 
that he does not escape to the hills.” 

Then they put Gimil in a room that was like that of 
the king’s son and gave him food and drink and all that 
his heart could desire, but they set a watch at the door. 
And Gimil was troubled and bowed his head on his hands 
and wept. “How can I, a boy, do what the wise men of 
my people could not do? They will surely perish in the 
pit, and I, if I live, will be a slave.” , 

And when it was dark Nazin came to him and said, 
“Why do you weep? Weeping is for women and not for 
men. Thy pictures have gotten thee out of the pit; let 
them get thy father and brethren out also. Ea will feed 
them thru me, but it cannot be for long — waste no time 
in tears.” 

All day Gimil worked with the clay and prayed to 
Nin Nidin, but the god answered not. Perhaps he was 
asleep or on a journey. And Nazin came and talked 
with him and was like a brother to him, but Gimil was 
not comforted. 


50 


Tales of Telal 


That night Gimil was wakened from deep sleep by a 
hand laid upon him and a voice said to him, “Be not 
afraid, Gimil, son of Nuru, but listen.” 

And Gimil sat up and saw standing beside him an old 
man with a white beard reaching to his girdle. In the 
moonlight he seemed like the spirit of the river which 
rises from the waters when the sun has passed beyond 
the hills. 



At first Gimil was afraid and trembling took hold of 
him, but when he saw the man’s face the trembling left 
him, for the face was like that of a mother as she looks 
at her child. 

“I am Zed of the children of Sem and servant of El, 
the lord of lords. Thou hast cried unto Nin Nidin, but 
there was none to answer. But El whom I serve had 
compassion on thee and sent me to thee. To the wise of 
my people hath been given the secret of the written word, 
but we have kept it hidden lest they who serve not El 



Gimil the Scribe 


51 


should be remembered by those who come after. These 
many years I have served EaNandu and my secret would 
have made me rich and great, but I have kept it hidden. 
But it hath been shown to me that the light may not be 
hidden. I will show thee the secret of how to make the 
words of the wise and the deeds of the great live forever ! 

“Nay, bow not at my feet. Many years ago thy 
father delivered me from the hands of the spoilers in 
the land of Elam and thy mother bound up my wounds 
and ministered to me. It is life for a life and the will of 
El who hath said to me, ‘Let the light shine both for the 
just and the unjust. Be not afraid, the man who guards 
thee is of my people.’ ” 

And Zed took from his girdle a sharp stick with a 
wedge-shaped point like the stylus which the makers of 
tablets use, and he made marks upon the clay and they 
seemed to Gimil like the tracks of some strange animal. 
But Zed showed him that each mark stood for a sound or 
a word. When the same sound belonged to many words 
it had the same sign. 

Zed wrote upon the clay, “El is a great god; there is 
none like unto him. He loves righteousness and hateth 
iniquity.” Then he taught Gimil to read it and then to 
write it. 

When the morning drew nigh Zed arose and laying his 
hand on the head of Gimil said, “I have shown thee the 
path ; walk in it. Say naught to any of what I have told 
thee. I am but the voice of El, the all- wise. Forget him 
not in the days of thy prosperity.” 

And Nazin came to visit Gimil as was his wont. 
Gimil did not heed him but made strange figures on the 


52 


Tales of Telal 


clay, and Nazin said, “Sorrow hath made him mad.” 
But when Gimil turned and looked at him Nazin saw that 
his face shone like the sun rising in his strength. 

“O prince, I am not mad, but joy lights my face. The 
secret of the living word hath been shown to me. The 
words which I shall write will be young when the land 
of Aram is old.” 

“Who showed thee the secret?” cried Nazin. 

“He whom the children of Sem call El, the Enlightener ; 
he showed me the riddle. I called to Nin Nidin and he 
answered not, but El heard and sent his messenger. For 
me there shall be no god but El.” 

For many nights Zed came and taught Gimil how to 
write with the stylus and for many days Gimil wrote 
under the eyes of Nazin. And Nazin told his father 
that the slave boy from Elam had found the secret hidden 
from the wise men, and EaNandu sent for Gimil and 
said, “Hath Nin Nidin heard thee?” 

“Nay, my lord the king, but El, king over all gods, 
heard me.” 

“If thy word be true,” answered EaNandu, “there 
shall be no god worshipped in all my kingdom but El.” 

And they brought clay and put it before Gimil and he 
wrote upon it as Zed had taught him. Then he showed 
the king the mystery of the writing and EaNandu mar- 
velled greatly and cried, “There shall be no god but El.” 

Then the king turned to Nazin and said, “What shall 
be done for Gimil whom El hath chosen to reveal the 
hidden thing?” 

And Nazin answered, “Let him be as a son of the king 
and he shall be a brother to me.” 


Gimil the Scribe 


S3 



And EaNandu hung a seal of precious stone about the 
neck of Gimil and put a robe upon him like that of the 
king’s son. Then he sent for Nuru and his brethren and 
when he had loaded them with gifts sent them back to 
the hill country of Elam. 

But Gimil stayed with Nazin and the hearts of the 
young men clave to each other and they were like the 
two hands of EaNandu. 

And Gimil wrote of the good deeds of the great king, 
but the bad he wrote not. And they called Gimil the first 
writer, but he was not for Zed taught him. 

jfe:|{:|ej|es|s5K5|«5H 

And when Telal had finished the story of Gimil and 
showed them the stylus with which he wrote, one of the 
young princes asked him, “Show us some of the writing 
of Gimil the scribe.” 

And Telal went into the library and brot out a tablet. 

“When EaNandu conquered all the land between the 
rivers he sent Nazin to rule over Babylon and Gimil went 


54 


Tales of Telal 


with him. Now there was in the court of EaNandu a 
princess whose name was Kasebeya and she was very 
beautiful and Gimil loved her as his own soul. When he 
was separated from her he was as a man without food 
or sleep and he wrote upon tablets of clay and sent them 
to the Lady Kasebeya. This is one of them : 

“ To the Lady Kasebeya: 

May El, the Enlightener, for my sake grant thee 
everlasting life. I am writing to inquire for thy health. 
Please send me news of it. I am living at Babylon, but 
I have not seen thee, which troubles me greatly. If thou 
comest send me news of thy arrival that I may be happy. 
Mayst thou live forever. 


Gimil the Scribe.'' 


“I did not know," said one of the young princes, “that 
men loved thus so long ago." 

“Love," answered Telal, “is as old as the heart of 
man." 



V. 


Nidinti and the Magic Crystal 

And again Telal took the young princes to the great 
library at Borsippa, across the river from Babylon, and he 
showed them there the thousands of books written upon 
tablets of clay. When they tired of gazing at the tablets, 
which looked very much alike to their eyes, they whis- 
pered to each other, “Where will Telal find a story 
today?” Then Telal took them to a room in which many 
strange things were kept which belonged to the days 
before men counted the seasons or left written records 
of their deeds. There were arrows and knives of flint, 
reaping knives made of the jawbones of sheep, and still 
others of wood of the same shape with sharp pieces of 
flint set in the place of teeth. Then there were weapons 
and tools of copper and bronze and many curious things, 
and the princes said to each other, “This may have been 
• the sword of Ac, but what will Telal tell us of today?” 

But Telal led them away from the arrows and knives 
and lance heads to a corner where were kept crystals 
of many sizes and shapes, and he chose one that was 
smooth and oval and so clear that one could see thru it 
like pure water. Then he took from his pouch a tablet 
of clay no larger than a thumb nail and gave it to the 
princes and told them to read the writing. And each one 
looked at it with all his might. Some could see marks as 
fine as spiders’ webs, but no one could read what was 
written. 


56 


Tales of Telal 


Then Telal took the crystal and bade them look at the 
tablet thru the crystal and the writing was so plain 
that all could read. “This/^ said Telal, when they 
gathered about him in a cool spot, “is the magic crystal 
of Nidinti.’’ 



Now Nidinti was a slave and belonged to Quadda, the 
stonecutter. With his master he made seals for the rich 
of precious stones. They shaped the cylinders on a 
lathe, drilled holes thru them so that they could be sus- 
pended about the neck, and cut the names of the owners 
upon them, ornamenting them according to the wealth of 
the buyers. 

And Nidinti was a cunning workman and many tried 
to buy him from Quadda, but he would not sell hini, for 
he grew rich by the hand of Nidinti. 

Nidinti loved his work, but he hated to be a slave. 
His father had been free, but had bound him to Quadda 


Nidinti and the Magic Crystal 


57 


for a debt, and as he lay on his bed of rushes in a corner 
of the shop at night time, he planned how he might buy 
his freedom. 

One day after much thot Nidinti said to Quadda: 
^‘After the measure of a day’s work is full, let me work 
by the light of the rush lamp so that after a time I may 
buy my freedom.” 

But Quadda answered : “If thou canst work for thyself 
by the light of the lamp, thou canst work for me.” So 
he worked by the light of the lamp as well as the light of 
the sun and Quadda grew richer, but not Nidinti. 

At first Nidinti was very angry and said to himself : 
“I will no longer put my soul into my work; I will be 
as one of the careless workmen and the great men will 
no longer come to Quadda for their seals and ornaments.” 

But when Nidinti put the stone in his lathe and felt 
the tool in his hand he could not mar it for the spirit of 
Ea, the master workman, moved in him and he said, “My 
spirit shall be free tho my body be bound.” 

And the thots of Nidinti worked as swiftly as his 
fingers and he sought out many hidden things. And 
Nidinti grew very wise and very skilful, but Quadda 
grew fat and slothful and his riches brot him no 
happiness. 

To Nidinti every stone had a spirit of beauty and he 
strove to grave the stone in its likeness and when he saw 
that which he had seen in vision carved in deathless stone, 
there came to him such joy as Quadda could not buy with 
his riches. 

Now it chanced that Iddin, the powerful king, who had 
conquered many peoples and built great cities and temples 
to the gods, fell sick, and when the evil spirit left him 


58 


Tales of Telal 


he could not discern the faces of his people and could 
no longer read the written word as he had been wont 
to do. 

And the heart of Iddin, the Great, was heavy within 
him and he said, “Without the sight of mine eyes my life 
is a burden to me.” 

Then Iddin sought out the wise men and the magicians 
and astrologers and physicians, and they made incanta- 
tions and studied the heavens and gave him bitter herbs 
to eat, but sight came not back to his eyes and he sent 
them all from him saying: “You weary me with your 
shoutings. Begone !” 

And Iddin sent messengers thru all the cities and 
countries of his kingdom, even to the borders of the 
great sea, saying: “Thus saith Iddin, before whom all 
the princes of the people bow down: The hand of Ea 
hath been heavy upon me and my life is a burden 
to me. To him that will give me the sight of mine eyes 
so that I can discern again who is my friend and who 
is my enemy and can read the written words of the wise 
men as aforetime, to him will I give my daughter Gigitu 
to wife and he shall be a prince among the people and 
no one, save the king, shall be greater.” 

And Nidinti, the slave, heard the words of the messen- 
ger of Iddin and he said to himself, “If eyes could be cut 
from stones then would Nidinti be a king’s son.” 

Soon after it chanced, or was the will of Ea, that 
Gigitu came to the shop of Quadda with a great company 
of servants and she brot a blue stone as large as a man’s 
hand and more precious than gold and she said to 
Quadda: “Thou art a cunning workman. Make me a 
seal that shall be more beautiful than any, even those of 


Nidinti and the Magic Crystal 


59 


Iddin, but if thou mar the stone it shall go hard with 
thee.’’ 

And Quadda was greatly troubled and his breath came 
fast and his face became purple and his hands shook so 
that he dared not take the blue stone from the princess. 

“O mighty one before whom the princes hide their 
faces, the trembling of age takes hold upon me and my 
hand hath lost its cunning, but there is a slave with me 
who talketh to the stones as if they were men and they do 
his bidding.” 

“Bring him to me,” answered Gigitu, and when they 
brot him she looked at him earnestly and she saw that the 
face of Nidinti was finer than any of the princes in her 
father’s court and his hand which still held the graving 
chisel was like that of a king. 



60 


Tales of Telal 


But Nidinti knew not that she was the king’s daughter. 
He only knew that she was more beautiful than any 
woman whom he had ever seen and he looked at her so 
long and steadfastly that Quadda would have plucked 
him away, but the princess said to Nidinti: “What dost 
thou see?” And Nidinti answered: “I see the face that 
has looked at me from the stone as I worked upon it.” 

“Canst thou grave it upon this stone?” said the prin- 
cess, handing him the blue stone. 

“If thou wilt come to the shop so that I can see thee as 
I work,” answered the slave. 

“If thou mar the stone, I will mar thy face,” growled 
Quadda. 

So for many days Gigitu came to the shop of Quadda 
and Nidinti molded her face in clay and then graved it 
upon the blue stone, and as he worked he talked of many 
things, for he had thot much, and the princess marveled, 
for there was no man in the court of Iddin who was so 
wise as he. And Nidinti’s hand wrot magic under the 
eyes of Gigitu, and when the seal was finished there was 
none like it in all the kingdom of Iddin. 

And Gigitu gave much money to Quadda, but she 
smiled on Nidinti and he was richer than his master. 

And when the princess came no more to the workshop 
of Nidinti his heart grew heavy and he could no longer 
forget that he was a slave as he worked with his graving 
tools. And the men who worked with him made sport 
of him and said, “Make eyes for Iddin and thou shalt 
wed the princess and be a great man. Till then be busy 
with thy tools or Quadda will sell thee to the ditch- 
digger.” 


Nidinti and the Magic Crystal 


61 


This they said to trouble Nidinti for they envied him 
because he was a better workman than they, but he 
answered nothing and mused within himself, “If any can 
make eyes for Iddin, why not Nidinti?” 

So as he worked at his bench Nidinti dreamed of the 
princess Gigitu and pondered how he might make eyes 
for Iddin. 

And it chanced that as he worked upon an oval 
crystal polishing it till it was as clear as water from the 
spring, he looked thru it and saw the skin of his hand 
magnified till it looked like coarse leather. “There is 
magic in the crystal,” cried he, and then looked thru it at 
some fine lines which he was graving in a seal and they 
were magnified twenty-fold. 



Then joy filled the heart of Nidinti and he said: 
“Blessed be El, the god of my fathers, for he hath shown 
to me the magic of the crystal.” 

Now the crystal belonged to Gigitu and when she came 
to fetch it there was no mark upon it and she said to 


62 


Tales of Telal 


Quadda: ‘‘Have Nidinti brot; he hath not graved upon it 
as I commanded.” And when Nidinti stood before her 
she made as tho she were angry and said, “Why hast 
thou not graven upon it?” “Because,” answered Nidinti, 
speaking so that only the princess could hear, “there is 
magic in the crystal. Give me the crystal again and 
tell thy father, the king, that Nidinti hath found the 
secret for which he hath sought in vain.” 

And Gigitu gave him back the crystal, saying so that 
all could hear: “This time do as I command thee,” and 
then so that only he could hear, “Dost thou know what 
Iddin hath promised to the man who shall give him again 
the sight of his eyes?” Nidinti bowed his head. “Dost 
thou know that the king will give thee to the lions if thou 
hast deceived him?” “Yea, I know, but Nidinti shall not 
feed the lions.” 

And Gigitu looked hard at Nidinti and he found favor 
in her eyes, for there was no one among the princes of 
the land whose face shone like his. “I will tell the king 
and may Ea make the magic strong.” 

On the morrow there was a noise of a great multitude 
on the street which passed the house of Quadda and 
there was the sound of many horses and the shouting 
of soldiers, and some looked out and cried, “It is the 
retinue of the great king.” But Nidinti looked not up 
but kept his eyes on the crystal which he had placed in 
a frame of wood with an inlaid handle of cunning work- 
manship. 

And Iddin stopped before the house of Quadda and 
his servants led him by the hand into the house of 
Quadda, and Quadda fell on his face before the king in 


Nidinti and the Magic Crystal 


63 


great fear. “My lord the king, what wilt thou of thy 
servant ?” 

And he said: “Cause Nidinti, the stonecutter, to be 
brot,” and when Nidinti stood before him his face was 
very terrible so that all feared but Nidinti. “Give me 
back the sight of mine eyes and I will do as I have sworn, 
but if thou deceive as others have done, men will re- 
member thee as the one upon whom the wrath of Iddin 
fell heavily.” 

And Iddin caused all but those who waited on his 
person to go out. “Now show me the magic,” and even 
the servants of the king trembled, saying, “Even Ea 
cannot save him when Iddin finds that he has deceived 
him,” but Nidinti stood before the king unmoved. 

And Nidinti took a clay tablet and wrote upon it the 
edict of the king: “To him who shall restore to me the 
sight of mine eyes so that I can tell my friends from my 
foes and read again the written words of the wise, I will 
give my daughter to wife and he shall be a prince. No 
one shall be greater than he except the king.” 

“Canst thou read it?” asked the slave. “Barest thou 
trifle with me?” cried the king, “Thou knowest that I 
cannot read it.” And the voice of Iddin was as the roar 
of the lion when he springs upon his prey. 

Then Nidinti took the crystal and handed it to the king 
and said: “Look at the reading thru the crystal,” and 
Iddin did so and he gave a great shout so that his 
servants ran to him, saying, “The slave hath smitten the 
king,” but he waved them back, crying, “Again I see 
the written word as in the days of my youth,” and he 
studied the face of Nidinti thru the crystal. “Thou hast 
the form and face of a prince and a prince thou shalt be.” 


64 


Tales of Telal 



And Iddin took Nidinti and made a great man of him 
and gave him Gigitu to wife. But even when he was a 
prince and all men bowed down to him, Nidinti loved best 
to work in the shop shaping the crystals which gave sight 
to those whose eyes were dimmed by age or disease. 
And oftentimes he would say to Gigitu as she sat beside 
him and watched the cunning of his fingers: “If I had 
not seen thy face and graved it in the blue stone I should 
not have found the magic of the crystal.” 

“And this,” said Telal to the young princes, “is the 
crystal which Nidinti made for the great king. You see 
how it reveals the hidden writing.” But the princes mar- 
velled most that thru the magic of the crystal a slave 
became a prince and wedded the king’s daughter. 


VI. 


Tamal the Tamer of Wild Asses 

Again when the Sabbath drew near and the work of 
the week had been finished, Telal took his pupils to Oar, 
the place of the palms, which is hard by the road to the 
desert and where there is a spring. 



As the way was long they rode upon asses, and because 
they were princes the beasts were white and fleet of 
foot. And as they rode to the place of palms they saw 
wild asses running as swiftly as the bird flies, and Telal 
said to them: “When we come to the spring and have 
drunk of the sweet water I will tell you of Tamal the 
Tamer, who caught the wild ass and made his strength 
and swiftness the servants of man.” 


66 


Tales of Telal 


When they had come to Oar and seated themselves 
under the shade of the palms, Telal told them this story : 

Before Babylon had been built, when the land between 
the rivers was the feeding place of wild beasts, our 
fathers lived in the hill country. They hunted the 
gazelle, the wild ox and goat for food, and before the 
time of Accad they had only stone knives and spears and 
arrows. They did not live in houses of brick, but in 
caves and holes in the earth or in tents of skin. And 
they were often without food because the beasts are 
swifter of foot than man and stronger. It was only by 
his cunning and his tools that he caught and overcame 
them. But as men became more skilful hunters the 
beasts became wiser. They would not walk into the traps 
and snares which had been laid for them and they kept 
beyond the reach of the swiftest arrow. The people mul- 
tiplied and the beasts were fewer and wiser and there 
was not food enough for all. 

Now Urgan was a mighty hunter. No one was so 
quick footed, so strong of arm and so sure with the 
arrow and spear. But the children of Urgan were many 
and their mouths were always open for food, like birds 
in the nest. Often there was not food enough to fill 
them. 

And Urgan said to Gaga his wife : “There is not room 
enough in this land. Let us cross the rivers and journey 
towards the hiding place of the sun. It may be that we 
shall find food so that our children shall live.” 

So they left their people in the hills and came to the 
wilderness. As far as the eye could see there was noth- 


Tamal the Tamer of Wild Asses 


67 


ing but sand and brown grass, with here and there a clus- 
ter of palms. And Gaga was afraid and said : “There is 
neither water nor food. We shall perish. Let us go 
back whence we came.’^ 

But Urgan answered: “Behind us death lies in wait. 
Let us go forward. If it is the will of Ea we may find 
life. If not, we are no better than our fathers.” Now 
the words of Urgan were strong, but his heart was very 
weak and he thot to himself, “It may be that I have brot 
them to this solitary place to die.” 

And Urgan saw in the distance a clump of palms 
larger than the rest. “There,” said he to Gaga, “is water 
and shelter from the sun,” and they journeyed to it. But 
the way was long, the children were weak from 
hunger and thirst and the palm trees seemed to have 
legs and walk from them. 

For a time Urgan and Gaga carried the youngest 
children in their arms, but at last the mother could go no 
further and sank down upon the sand. 

The heart of Urgan was as a stone in his breast and 
his strength failed for he had not eaten for many days, 
having given to the mother and children. A darkness 
came before him and the breath rattled in his throat. 

“I will go on and get water,” he said, but his limbs 
failed him. 

Now Tamal was the oldest, but the strength of man 
had not come to him and he said, “If the strength of 
Urgan, my father, is gone, what can I do ?” 

But the spirit of Ea which giveth strength to those in 
need came to him and he said to his father : “Give me the 
goat skin and I will go and fetch water; stay thou here 
and drive away the beasts from the little ones.” 


68 


Tales of Telal 


And Gaga cried, “Stay ! Let us all die together !” But 
Urgan answered, “Let the lad go. It is better to meet 
death than to wait for him.” 

“How shall I find the way back after I have found 
the water?” asked Tamal. And Urgan lifted himself 
from the ground and showed Tamal a star that was 
bigger than all the rest, which stood in the heavens 
behind them. “When thou hast found the water,” and 
there was a rustling as of dry reeds in his throat, “turn 
and come towards the star crying, Ea! Ea! Ea!” 



Stumbling at every step and often falling, Tamal tot- 
tered on towards the palms. After a time he forgot who 
he was and where he came from, but he still remembered, 
water ! water ! When he could no longer walk, he crawled 
like a lizard upon his belly, raising his head from time 
to time to look for the palms. 


Tamal the Tamer of Wild Asses 


69 


At last, Ea only knows how, he reached this spot and 
found the spring of sweet water from which we have 
drunk. 

For a long time he lay by the spring and drank and 
slipped back into the darkness and then drank again until 
his strength began to return. 

Then hunger gnawed at his vitals and he groped about 
in the dim light of the moon, plucking the grass that 
grew about the spring and eating it. Something fell from 
the palm above him and rolled to his feet. It was heavy 
as a stone and shaped like a great egg. He picked it up 
and shook it and there was the sound of liquid within 
it. Perhaps it was an egg which some great bird had 
laid. It might be good to eat. He tried to crush the 
shell with his hands, but could not. Then he struck 
it upon a stone at the spring’s mouth and it cracked open. 
Inside he found something that looked like milk and 
cheese and was sweet to the taste. 

After he had eaten of it he was refreshed and stood 
again on his feet and thot came back to him. Here was 
drink and food, but his father and mother and his 
brothers and sisters lay dying on the plain. 

With trembling hands he filled the goat skin with water 
and groped about till he had found four of the strange 
eggs and wrapped them in his sheepskin coat. Then he 
made his way to the open again. The plain before him 
was trackless. He tried to find his own footprints in the 
sand by the light of the moon, but he could see nothing 
but dried grass. 

Then he remembered the words of Urgan, ‘‘Follow 
the star,” and he looked up to the sky and, lo, there was 
the star like a great yellow eye looking down upon him. 


70 


Tales of Telal 


So he turned his back to the palms and journeyed 
slowly on with his eye ever on the star. After a while, 
he stopped and called “Ea! Ea! Ea!” and listened. For 
a long time he heard no sound but the braying of the wild 
asses in the distance; then he seemed to hear the echo 
of his own cry, “Ea ! Ea ! Ea I” 

Just as the light of the star paled before the coming 
of the sun, Tamal saw before him the head of Urgan his 
father raised above the dried grass. Then it sank back 
again. 



When Tamal stood beside him he did not move, or 
speak, but he breathed with a whistling sound. At his 
feet lay Gaga and the children as tho dead. Then Tamal 
knelt beside them and forced water between their lips, 
weeping and crying: “Ea, thou hast guided me to the 



Tamal the Tamer of Wild Asses 


71 


water and led me back to them by the star. Send back 
their spirits from the dark land whither they have 
wandered.” 

Urgan was the first to come to himself and he sat up 
and looked at Tamal with eyes that saw not, but he kept 
crying, “Water! Water! Water!” and Tamal gave to 
him, but only a little at a time, till the spirit came back 
to him and he knew Tamal, and together they gave water 
and the milk of the cocoanut to Gaga and the children. 

When the light had come and their strength returned 
they came to this garden of Ea, and they called it Eaden, 
the garden of Ea. 

And Urgan said, “Ea hath led us to this place; let us 
abide here.” And they built a house of the dried leaves 
of the palm and they ate of the fruit of the palm and of 
the animals which Urgan shot as they came to the spring 
to drink. 

Now Urgan killed a wild ass with a foal by her side 
and when he would have killed the foal also, Tamal said 
to him, “Give him to me; he shall be as a dog to me and 
follow me.” “Canst thou make the sun and the moon 
do thy bidding and shape the course of the wind?” 
answered Urgan. 

Nevertheless he gave the foal to Tamal and Tamal 
cared for it as a mother cares for her young, and it fol- 
lowed Tamal as a dog follows his master. 

When it grew and wanted to follow those of its kind 
who came to drink, Tamal made a bridle of thongs and 
hide and tied him or led him whither he went. 

After a time, when Urgan had slain many of the wild 
beasts which came to the spring to drink, they were afraid 
and came no more and Urgan was frightened and said to 


72 


Tales of Telal 


Tamal, "‘If the beasts come not hither to drink, we must 
go after them/^ 

So they put many arrows in their quivers and sharp 
knives in their girdles and went out on the plain, but they 
killed nothing, for the beasts saw them afar off. 

At last when they had killed nothing for many days 
and hunger took hold upon them, Urgan said to Tamal, 
“We will go to the river and lie in wait and bring back 
food.” 

And as they were ready to go Tamal led out Sargi, the 
wild ass colt, to take him with them, but Urgan said, 
“Leave him ; it may be that he will be food for Gaga and 
the children.” So Tamal tied him by the spring and said 
to his mother, “Kill him to save life, but I love him like 
a brother.” 

So Urgan and Tamal journeyed to the river and lay 
in wait by a pool where the gazelle came to drink. And 
when they had lain there a long time and slain nothing, 
Urgan said to Tamal, “Stay thou here while I go to 
another place.” 

When Tamal had watched for a long time and had seen 
nothing, a heaviness came upon his eyelids and he fell 
asleep. 

He was awakened from sleep by a great cry as of a 
man and beast in a death struggle. Running whence the 
cries came, he found Urgan struggling with a lion which 
had sprung upon him as he lay in wait. And he thrust 
his spear into the lion’s side as he lay upon Urgan and 
killed him, but Urgan lay as one dead. 

When Tamal had bound up his wounds and brot water 
and poured it upon him, his spirits came to him again 


Tamal the Tamer of Wild Asses 


73 



and he sat up, but the use of his limbs had gone from 
him and he groaned aloud. 

‘T cannot walk ; thou canst not carry me ; I am a dead 
man. Escape to the desert before thou, too, be overtaken 
by the yellow ones who lie in wait.” Then a darkness 
swallowed up Urgan and he lay as one dead, but Tamal 
would not leave him. 

All night Tamal watched by his father and Ea stopped 
the mouths of the lions and they came not near him. 
And when morning was almost come a deer came down 
to the water to drink, and Tamal drew his bow and shot 
it and made a fire of dried reeds and cooked meat for 
his father and himself. 

And after Urgan had eaten the heart of him waxed 
stronger and he said: ‘Tf I but had the use of my limbs 


74 


Tales of Telal 


we should escape. Go ; it may be that after I have rested 
the strength will come to me again.’’ 

But Tamal would not go, for he knew that the lion 
had broken the limbs of Urgan and he kept watch over 
his father and gave him food and drink. 

When the evening was come a herd of wild asses came 
down to the river to drink, but they smelled the blood of 
the lion and all but one of them fled. As he put down 
his head to drink Tamal drew his bow and would have 
shot him, but he saw a bridle of thongs upon him, and 
he dropped his bow and ran to him crying, “Sargi ! Sargi ! 
Sargi !” 

And Sargi knew Tamal and came to him and rubbed 
his nose in his hand. And Tamal took him by the bridle 
and led him to where Urgan lay. And Urgan said, “Ah, 
if I but had his legs we should escape !” 

And the Revealer planted a thot in the mind of Tamal. 
At first it was as small as a mustard seed, but it grew 
to be a tree — “Sargi shall be legs to Urgan !” 

Then Tamal led Sargi out into the plain and spoke 
lovingly to him and rubbed his neck gently and then 
leaned upon him. At first Sargi did not like it and 
jumped aside, but he loved Tamal and when he saw that 
Tamal meant him no harm, he let Tamal climb upon his 
back and he carried him. 

Sometimes Sargi would walk slowly plucking the grass 
as he went, then he would lift his head and run so swiftly 
that it seemed to Tamal as if he rode on the wings of an 
eagle and he clung with hands and feet to the back of 
Sargi. 

At last when Sargi was weary of running and had 
become wonted to the load upon his back, Tamal led him 


Tamal the Tamer of Wild Asses 


75 


to where Urgan lay and tied him to a tree. Then he made 
Urgan reach up and take hold of Sargi’s neck and he 
lifted his father’s broken limbs till they hung over Sargi’s 
back. 

At first Sargi was frightened and Urgan groaned aloud 
and would have fallen, but Ea sent quietness to the 
beast’s heart, and Tamal rubbed his nose gently and said 
to him : “Sargi, I saved you from the knife and have been 
a brother to you; be feet and limbs to my father and 
carry him to the spring by the palms.” And Sargi lifted 
his ears and looked at Tamal as if he understood him. 

So Tamal took part of the deer which he had slain and 
put it upon his shoulder and led Sargi, with his father 
Urgan upon his back, out upon the plain towards the 
palms. 

When they came to the spring. Gaga and the children 
came out to meet them and they helped Urgan to slip 
down from Sargi’s back and laid him upon a bed of grass. 
And Gaga put her arms about Sargi’s neck and kissed 
him. But Sargi ate the grass by the spring and switched 
the flies away with his tail as if nothing had happened. 

^Tow while Urgan lay upon his back waiting till the 
bones of his limbs knit again, Tamal hunted for the 
family and they did not go hungry, for Sargi carried him 
so swiftly that he could overtake the wild ox and some- 
times the deer. 

Once when his hunting had taken him two days’ jour- 
ney from Eaden, strange men pursued him and would 
have killed him but for the swiftness of Sargi. 

And the fear of Tamal went out thru all that country, 
for to the courage of the man he added the swiftness of 


76 


Tales of Telal 



the ass. And they called him Tamal the Tamer for he 
had taught the wild ass to do his bidding. 

When Tamal became a man and his strength was as 
the strength of Urgan, his mother Gaga pointed to the 
hills of the sun-rising and said, “Go back to the people 
among the hills and take thee a wife, as thy father Urgan 
did.” 

And Tamal mounted Sargi and took dried deer’s meat 
in his pouch and rode away towards the sun-rising. 

After many days Tamal came back to Eaden and there 
rode behind him Rega, of the daughters of Hit. 

And Tamal made a house for himself as Urgan had 
done. And he had many children and they all rode upon 
asses which were the foals of Sargi. And so men learned 
how to tame the ass and make his fleetness their own. 


Tamal the Tamer of Wild Asses 


77 


After a while one of the young princes said to Telal: 
*‘The ass which I rode today is not like that of Tamal. 
If it were not so hot, I could walk faster than he.” 

“That was long ago,” answered Telal, “and the asses 
have grown tired carrying many people and heavy 
burdens.” 


VIL 


Asta the Star-Gazer 

Again the Sabbatu approached, the day on which men 
rest from their labors and worship the gods. And it was 
night and the pupils of Telal sat about him in the garden 
by the river. 

For a long time Telal was silent and no word came 
from him, but he looked up at the moon and the stars 
with eyes that seemed to see beyond them to the dwelling- 
place of the gods. 

At last the young princes began to whisper to each 
other. “Telal hath told us all the tales. He can think 
of no more.” “Nay,” said one, “he is listening for the 
voice. This time it will come from the stars.” 

But Telal held his peace till one of the princes asked 
him: “Why do you look so steadfastly at the heavenly 
ones? Have they voices which you can hear?” 

“Yes,” answered Telal, “each star has a voice, but 
only those dear to the gods can hear them. I was think- 
ing of Asta the Star-gazer, and how he learned to call 
the stars by name.” 

“Let us hear the story of Asta,” cried the princes and 
gathered more closely about him. 

******** 

Before the days of the wise ones who numbered the 
stars and marked out the heavens like a ploughed field, 
men were as children. To them the mountain of the 
world was as an inverted bowl with its rim upon the 


Asta the Star-Gazer 


79 


great waters. Upon it men dwelt ; under it was the dark 
dwelling-place of the dead. Above the earth was another 
great bowl, the heavens, also resting on the waters. 
Beneath it moved the moon and the stars; above it the 
gods dwelt in eternal light. On the east and the west 
of the heavens were the twin gates thru which the sun 
passed to and from the world of darkness. 

“But what do the wise ones think now of the world 
and the stars above them ?” asked one of the princes. 

“They think many things,” answered Telal, “and many 
are no wiser than their fathers, but let me tell you the 
story of Asta.” 

Now Saru, the father of Asta, was a gardener and he 
had many fields, well-watered and fruitful. No one 
between the rivers had so great harvests as Saru when 
the seed was planted at the right time, but when those 
who made incantations to find the time of planting failed 
there was little grain and the people of Saru hungered. 

When once again the corn failed and there was famine, 
Saru said to Asta: “The magicians have deceived me. 
They know not the time of planting and the coming of 
the seasons; they only know how to get food and drink 
from the foolish ones with their incantations.” 

So Saru drove away the magicians and gave them 
nothing but stinging words. And the magicians cursed 
Saru and his fields. But he would not call them again, 
tho his heart was troubled. 

Now Asta loved the stars as the bee loves the flowers 
with honey, and each night he lay upon his back on the 
river bank and watched them. He called the great ones 
by names and he made maps of the heavens in clay and 
put bright seeds in the place of stars. 


80 


Tales of Telal 



And the people said of Asta, “He is bewitched ; an evil 
spirit hath taken away his understanding.” But Saru 
was angry, and said, “Asta hath more wisdom than your 
wise men ; watch and you shall see.” 

Nevertheless, it troubled Saru that his son was not like 
others. But he loved him the more. 

Now when Saru had driven away the magicians and sat 
brooding at the door of his house, Asta came to him and 
said, “Be not troubled ; I will ask the stars and they shall 
tell us the time of planting and the coming and going of 
the seasons.” 

“If thou canst,” answered Saru, “there will be no man 
like thee in all the land, and we will drive out the witch 
men who are like leeches upon us.” 

And Asta looked at the stars by night and made many 
and strange marks upon clay. He studied the coming and 
going of the moon and divided the month into thirty days 
and the week into six days, with Sabbatu, the day of rest, 
between. Moreover, he found that after the twelfth 
month the cycle of the seasons began again. 


Asta the Star-Gazer 


81 


Then Asta made a great circle on a clay tablet and 
divided it into three hundred and sixty-five parts and he 
marked upon it the time of seed sowing and of harvest, 
the time of the full moon and the new moon. 

When Saru saw it he said: “Surely the boy is be- 
witched. Madness hath seized him.” But Asta ate and 
drank as aforetime and his countenance was not changed, 
only he seemed to look beyond those with whom he 
talked, as if he saw what they could not see. 

Now after the lean year when famine was in the land, 
Asta said to his father, “The time of planting has come ; 
let us put in the seed.” But Saru was troubled because 
his neighbors did not plant, for the magicians said to 
them, “The time of planting hath not come.” 

Then Asta said to his father: “If the magicians know 
the times of the seasons and have power to curse the 
fields, so that they bear not, it will not profit thee. But 
if the stars have shown me the cycle of the seasons and 
the curses of the magicians are like the shoutings of 
those filled with strong drink, then shalt thou prosper 
exceedingly and have great honor in the gate.” 

And Saru hated the magicians and loved Asta, and so 
he said to him, “Be it as you will.” 

So they planted the corn and the wheat while the sky 
was still black and lowering, and the neighbors of Saru 
came and made sport of him, saying, “Aha, the curse of 
the magicians hath smitten thy head as it will smite thy 
field.” And they laughed at him and wagged their heads. 

Then Saru turned his back upon his neighbors and 
prayed to Bel, the god of harvest : “O Bel, giver of plenty, 
make the corn and wheat to grow ; drive away the locust 
and the blight and grant us a harvest or we perish.” 


82 


Tales of Telal 



And the grain of Saru waxed green and grew exceed- 
ingly, but his neighbors still held their hands, for the 
magicians forbade them. 

Now the land of Ningi was hard by that of Saru, but 
there was hatred between them because of a boundary. 
Once when the river had risen higher than was its wont, 
it swept away the dike and filled the canal which divided 
the fields of Saru and Ningi. When the waters abated 
Saru said, “This is my field,” and Ningi answered, 
“Thou art a lying one, it is my field.” 

And Saru took men by night and digged a ditch near 
the house of Ningi, and Ningi also took men by night 
and digged a ditch near the house of Saru. And neither 
could plant in the field between the two ditches for fear 
of the other. Now Ningi had a daughter whose name 
was Narma, and Asta and Narma loved each other as 
Ningi and Saru hated each other. Because the field of 


Asta the Star-Gazer 


83 


cursing was become a thicket and no man planted it, the 
children played together there, unafraid of the spirits of 
cursing. Asta made pictures of the heavens in clay for 
Narma and she made baskets and mats of reeds for him. 
And their fathers knew not of it. 

When Narma became a woman, many sought her for 
wife, but Ningi said: “It is the time of famine; there is 
none so beautiful as Narma; let him who would take her 
to wife fill my granary as high as a man’s thigh.” 

And the young men were sorrowful and went away, 
for they had no grain. Then came Asta to his father and 
said, “Get me Narma, the daughter of Ningi, to wife.” 

“Thou foolish one,” cried Saru, “knowest thou not 
that there is not grain enough in all the land to fill the 
granary of Ningi? And besides there is hatred between 
him and me.” 

“If the blessing of Bel continues,” answered Asta, 
“there will be grain enough in one of thy fields to fill the 
granary of Ningi to overflowing.” 

And Saru saw a cloud in the sky as of locusts coming 
down upon the land, and he said to Asta, “If Bel gives 
us a full harvest, thou shalt fill the granary of Ningi and 
take Narma to wife.” 

When Asta told Narma she was glad at first, but then 
she wept, for said she, “The locusts are coming and the 
fields of Saru are green and they will fall upon them and 
there will be none left.” 

“Alas !” cried Asta, “the stars have told me the time 
of planting, but they have not told me how to drive away 
the locusts.” 

Then Narma plucked him by the hand and said: 
“There is a wise woman of the children of Sem, whose 


84 


Tales of Telal 


name is Mira, and I have found favor in her eyes and she 
hath said to me, Tray not to Bel and Ishtar and the gods 
of the land, for there is none to hear. Pray to El who 
made heaven and earth, who holdeth the waters in his 
hands and driveth the winds before him and maketh the 
earth bring forth.’ ” 

And Asta said : “The gods of our people are very far 
off or they are very busy. Let us make sacrifice to 
El and pray to him that the locusts destroy not the grain.” 



So Asta took a kid from the flock and carried it to a 
hidden place in the field of cursing, and he made an 
altar of clay and laid reeds upon it and kindled them. 
And when the smoke of the sacrifice rose in the air, they 
knelt down and Asta prayed : 

“O thou, to whom the children of Sem make prayer, 
if thou wilt hear the cry of those who are of another 
people, hear us. The shadow of the locusts is upon us. 


Asta the Star-Gazer 


85 


and unless some god drive them away, they will devour 
every green thing and there will be no food in the land.” 

And Narma said very softly, “And there will be no 
wheat to fill the granary of Ningi.” 

After they had prayed, Asta and Narma still knelt 
and listened. To the east there was a sound from the 
heavens as of a wind blowing thru the reeds or of a hive 
of bees as big as a temple, and the light of the sun was 
hidden as by a cloud. 

Then they heard the cries of a great multitude: “The 
devourers are coming! The devourers are coming!” 
And there was a sound of weeping and prayer and curs- 
ing, and the magicians made strange noises with their 
drums. 

“Alas!” cried Asta, “there is none to help. El is like 
the other gods, if there be any gods.” 

“Who art thou who criest to El in the tongue of a 
worshiper of Bel?” said a deep voice beside them, and 
they turned and saw Mira, the prophetess of the people 
of Sem. 

“Listen, thou foolish ones. While you were yet speak- 
ing, El heard and sent me to thee. Do as I bid thee and 
the plague of the locusts shall be stayed. Lay dry reeds 
between thy fields and the locusts and cover them with 
pitch from the spring by the river and when the locusts 
draw near kindle the reeds and cry, ‘Turn back from the 
breath of El, who alone is god.’ ” 

And Asta went quickly and called the servants of Saru 
and they made a pile of reeds and covered them with 
pitch, as Mira had commanded them. 

When the locusts were upon them like a flood from the 
great water, they lighted the reeds and the pitch, and a 


86 


Tales of Telal 


great smoke arose, like a wall between the fields of Saru 
and the devourers, and with a great noise they passed 
over. 

And the magicians made a tumult and cried, “It is 
evil magic, let us drive out Saru and his children.” But 
the people said: “Let us wait until the time of harvest. 
It may be that El is more powerful than the gods of the 
land and Asta the Star-gazer sees more than you.” 

Now when the fields of Saru were yellow for the har- 
vest, the fields of his neighbors were still green and the 
grain was not ripe. And Saru reaped and threshed the 
wheat and his granaries would not hold it, so that Asta 
took of it and filled the granary of Ningi, and Ningi gave 
Narma to him for wife as he had promised. 



And Saru and Ningi were reconciled to each other and 
they gave the field of cursing to Asta and Narma, and 
they called it the Field of Blessing. 

And the rains came before the wheat of the neighbors 
of Saru had fully ripened and there was only half a har- 



Asta the Star-Gazer 


87 


vest, but Saru gave to them and there was no famine as 
aforetime. 

Then the people drove away the magicians, saying, “Go 
live with the wild asses and bray in the wilderness,” but 
to Asta they said, “Set thou the times and seasons for us 
and we will do thy bidding,” and he did so and became 
a great man among them, and he appointed the seventh 
day as a Sabbatu, a day of rest for the heart and for the 
worship of El, who had delivered them from the locusts. 

“Why,” asked one of the young princes of Telal, “why 
do we not worship El ?” 

“After the time of Asta men forgot El and worshiped 
other gods, but of that I will tell you another time.” 


VIIL 


Adapa the Fisherman 

It was the evening before Sabbatu, and Telal and the 
young princes took a boat and floated down the life-giv- 
ing river to the sea. A crescent moon looked thru the 
pillars of the west and one by one the stars came out. 
As they drifted thru the city there was the low hum 
of voices, and when they came out into the fields 
below the city there were the lowing of the cattle and the 
twittering of marsh fowl. 

When they came upon some fishermen drawing their 
nets Telal bought some fish with a ring of copper and 
they made a fire upon the shore and broiled them. After 
they had eaten they sat about the coals and Telal told 
them the story of Adapa the Fisherman. 

In the times before men planted grain and tilled the 
fields and made ditches and levees to rule over the water, 
men hunted the beasts of the wood and field and caught 
fish from the rivers. But when men multiplied and 
crowded on one another there was not food for all. 

Now Lamga was a great hunter before Ea, but he had 
many sons as well as daughters, and he said to Adapa 
and Sura the oldest, “There is not room for us all; go 
and find fresh hunting ground for yourselves.” Then 
the mother of Adapa and Sura wept, but when the 
children at her knee cried for food she let them go. 


Adapa the Fisherman 


89 


“Let us go back to the hills from which our people 
came/' said Sura. “Nay," answered Adapa, “they know 
us not and will drive us out or kill us. Let us follow the 
river till we come to a place where there is no man." 

So they made a raft of sticks and reeds and drifted 
down the river, committing themselves to Ea. As they 
went on, great monsters with scales like a fish but hard 
as stone, and with jaws as long as a man’s arm, came 
up out of the water and followed them, gnashing upon 
them with their teeth. 



And they were afraid and shot their arrows at them, 
but the shafts broke and the flints fell into the water. 

“Let us go back whence we came," cried Sura. 

“We cannot go back. It we try to push the raft up 
stream the crocodiles will devour us; if we make our 
way by the banks of the river the lions will fall upon us." 


90 


Tales of Telal 


All night the river carried them on. The water rose 
above their feet and they were cold, but they dared not 
make the raft fast to the shore. 

In the morning they came to an open place and they 
made a fire with the sticks which they had kept dry in 
their pouches and ate the meat which their mother had 
given them. 

When they heard the sound of something creeping 
upon them from the thicket behind, they pushed their 
raft out into the stream, and at last the river bore them 
to where it gives its water to the sea, from which the 
ancients say that Onannes came up to teach men many 
things. 

Under their feet was burning sand, behind them a 
wilderness of reeds, before them the great water with 
no land beyond. Mountains of water tumbled upon the 
shore with a terrible sound and they were afraid, and 
Sura cried, “They are like the wolves of the hills with 
foam dripping from their jaws; they will devour us,^* 
and he ran to take refuge in the reeds. 

But Adapa moved not tho he trembled at the noise of 
the waters. “Come back; the lions will devour you in 
the thicket; Ea hath bound the waves so that they shall 
not come nigh us.” 

Then Sura crept back to where Adapa stood and threw 
himself upon the sands and buried his face in his hands. 
“The lions are behind us and water wolves are before 
us; we have no food; we shall surely die; would that 
we had stayed with our people.” 

Adapa answered nothing, but looked steadfastly at 
the waves as they fell upon the shore and when he saw 
that they came no nearer and the sea birds played upon 


Adapa the Fisherman 


91 


them unafraid, the trembling left him and he plucked 
Sura by the arm. “Be not afraid ; the noise of the waves 
is like the lowing of the herd and not like the barking of 
wolves. The birds find food here; let us find it also.’' 

When they had been still for a long time a jackal 
came out of the reeds behind them and dug out something 
which looked like black snails from the shore where the 
waters of the river and the sea join, and he crushed 
them in his teeth and ate. 

“If a jackal can eat of them so may we,” cried Adapa, 
and they drove away the beast and dug out some of the 
shells from which he had been eating. Then they opened 
the shells with their knives and ate of the meat within 
and it was sweet to the taste. 

After the hunger left them they lay down and slept and 
when they awoke courage came back to their hearts, 
and Adapa said to his brother Sura, “We will make a 
house out of reeds and we will feed upon the heart of the 
shells. There is room; no man will crowd upon our 
hunting ground.” 

So they built a house of woven reeds and fed upon 
the mussels for a while, but after a time they grew weary 
of them and their flesh fell from them as if they had 
been sick of a fever. 

Now Adapa fell sick and would not eat of the shell 
fish and Sura wandered about seeking for other food, 
but he found none. 

When he came back, Adapa had dragged himself from 
the hut and was lying by a pool at the edge of the river 
and looking steadfastly into it. “Look!” said he, point- 
ing to a large fish that was feeding in the shallow water. 
“Fetch an arrow and shoot it.” 


92 


Tales of Telal 


And Sura shot an arrow into the fish, but it fled and 
carried the arrow with it, and Adapa sank down as one 
dead. But after a little he said to Sura, “Take the coat 
from my back and cut thin strips from it and make a 
cord and bind it to an arrow that has a barb,” and Sura 
did so. 

Then they watched till another fish came to feed and 
when Sura shot it with the barbed arrow it could not 
escape. 

So Sura built a fire and cooked the fish which they had 
taken and Adapa ate of it and the strength came to 
him again. But after they had taken many fish in 
the pool there came no more and they began to be hungry 
again. 

“The fish,” said Adapa, “stay in the deep places and 
we must find how to get them.” 

“They come to feed upon the mussels,” answered Sura, 
“let us make a snare for them.” 

So they took counsel together and made a fence of 
reeds across the mouth of the pool, leaving a small open- 
ing in the center. There they made gates of sharp twigs 
opening inward so that the fish could come in and not 
go out. 

And when it was dark the fish came again to feed and 
were caught in the snare and again they had flesh to 
eat. 

Now Adapa was content, but Sura was afraid of the 
lions and beasts which roared in the thickets behind 
them. “Some day,” said he, “they will leap upon us and 
devour us,” and Sura was always planning for some way 
of escape. 

“Let us swim to the island, which lies ten bow shots 


Adapa the Fisherman 


93 


from the shore; the lions cannot get us there,” said 
Adapa. But when they started to swim to it a great fish 
made as tho to devour them and they swam back with 
all speed. 

But Sura was not content and while Adapa made 
snares for fish he wove a great basket of reeds and wil- 
lows and when he had finished it he covered it with 
slime from a pit which he had found, so that the water 
could not come in. 

When the water was quiet and the tide set towards 
the island they put the big basket into the sea and got 
into it and paddled with their hands. 



Ea being with them, they came at last to the island, 
where they found a spring of fresh water and shade 
from the sun and no wild beasts and they were glad 
and said, “Now at last we have found a place for our- 
selves.” 

But there were no pools about the island where they 
could snare fish and they were soon hungry and found 


94 


Tales of Telal 


that they must go back to the mouth of the river to get 
fish. So they got into the reed basket which Sura had 
made and tried to paddle it ashore with their hands. 

This time the wind blew against them so that they were 
nearly carried out to sea and they were glad to get back 
to the island. 

“We must construct a larger basket and make some- 
thing to paddle with larger than our hands/’ said Sura, 
“but first we must get to the shore again so that we can 
have reeds and pitch.” 

So they waited till the wind blew towards the shore 
and then passed safely over. After they had caught 
fish and eaten they collected reeds and willow sticks and 
pitch and began a new basket which should be as long 
as two men. To stiffen it they wove into the bottom of 
it a heavy staff of hard wood which they found on the 
shore. Then they made paddles out of willow rods 
bent about at the end and covered with the skin of a 
jackal which they had killed. 

When they had finished the great basket they pitched 
it within and without with slime from the pit which they 
had found, and when they put it into the water their 
feet were as dry as if they stood on the sand. 

With paddles instead of hands Adapa and Sura found 
that they could make their reed boat go thru the water 
against a light wind and tide. So each day they 
came to the land to get food and each night they came 
back to the island to escape from the beasts. 

One night as they sat before their hut upon the island 
listening to the crying of the beasts in the jungle on 
shore and watching the moon and stars arise, Adapa said 
to Sura: “We have food enough and to spare; on this 


Adapa the Fisherman 


95 


island we are safe from the lions; there are no men of 
a strange people to make us afraid, but we are alone. 
At night time I dream of the camp-fire of our people. 
We were often hungry, but we were never lonely. Here 
we will grow fat and old and there will be none to come 
after us.” 

“Let us go back to our people and bring away some to 
keep us company,” said Sura. “In the boat which we 
have we can make our way up the river again and the 
big-mouthed ones cannot devour us.” 

“But we must make a bigger boat so that we can bring 
back those who will keep us company upon the island.” 



So they toiled many days and made a reed boat the 
length of three men. They wove the reeds more closely 
and made it stronger with willow wands and smoother 
on the bottom so that it would go thru the water more 
easily. 

And when it was finished they snared much fish and 
dried it in the smoke of a reed fire and put it in the boat 



96 


Tales of Telal 


which they had made, and when the heat of the sun was 
passed they began to go up the river. The water pushed 
against them and the willow paddles bent in their hands, 
but they slowly made their way along the bank, stopping 
often to rest. 

On the second day at sun setting they came to an 
open place by the river bank and when they had made 
their boat fast they found the tracks of animals which 
came to the river to drink. “Let us lie in wait and slay 
a deer or wild ox,” said Adapa. “My belly is weary 
of fish, fish, fish.” 

“Meat is good,” answered Sura, “but a whole skin 
is better. We will make the boat fast a little way in 
the stream and eat of our smoked fish and sleep.” 

But Adapa took his bow and arrows and hunting 
knife and leaped on shore. “What good is a whole skin 
over a belly that is tired of living? If we eat nothing 
but fish and stay where nothing can catch us we will 
become like the mussels which the jackals eat. Stay 
thou in the boat and bring it quickly to shore when I 
call thee.” 

So Sura fastened the boat to a clump of reeds a little 
way from the shore and ate of the smoked fish and 
grunted to himself and fell asleep. 

A great noise from the shore awakened him. He sat 
up and rubbed his eyes and listened. He heard the cries 
of women and children and the barking of dogs, and 
then the shouts of men in battle. Then there came the 
sound of running upon the bank and a cry from Adapa, 
“Sura ! Sura ! The boat ! On thy life ! Haste ! Haste !” 

Before Sura could bring the boat to shore Adapa 
leaped into the water and caught it and pulled it in. 


Adapa the Fisherman 


97 


Then he called to some who followed him, “Here! if 
you make haste we shall escape.” 

Then there came down the bank three women, bear- 
ing between them a man who seemed as one dead. 
And they laid the man in the bottom of the boat and 
Adapa made them get in also and lie down, and pushed 
the boat off into the stream. 

The boat sank so low in the water that Sura, who did 
not know whether he was awake or dreaming, cried, 
“The boat will sink and we shall all be devoured.” “If 
there are too many in the boat, jump out and walk on 
the shore,” answered Adapa, and began to paddle down 
the stream with all his strength. 

When they were a little more than an arrow shot down 
stream there came a great shouting and many men 
leaped upon the shore and shot their arrows after them, 
but they fell short. 

All night they made their way down the river again. 
Sometimes they thot that they had escaped, but they 
would hear the sound of those who followed them break- 
ing thru the reeds by the shore. 

When the morning light had come Sura saw that there 
lay in the bottom of the boat a large man with a terrible 
wound in his thigh. By him crouched a woman whose 
shoulders were bent as if from carrying heavy burdens. 
Behind them, in front of Adapa, were two girls who 
were almost women, but their backs were towards Sura 
and he could not see their faces. 

And Sura was hungry and tired and he said to Adapa, 
“Let us stop and eat and rest ourselves.” 

“Stop thou ; we are going on,” answered Adapa. 


98 


Tales of Telal 


Just then an arrow struck the side of the boat near 
where Sura sat and he began paddling again with all his 
might. 

But they could not escape their pursuers and finally an 
arrow came and struck the right arm of Adapa so that 
he could no longer hold the paddle. Then one of the 
young women drew him down to where she had been and 
took his paddle, but she could not use it as Adapa had 
done and the shouts of the men from the shore came 
nearer and nearer and many arrows fell about Sura. 



Then the elder woman began to cry, “Ea, help us! 
Ea, help us! There is no help from man.” And Ea 
caused a wind to blow down the river and the woman 
tore off her coat of deer skin, knelt upon one end of it 
and held up the other with her two hands so that it 
should catch the wind. And the wind blew hard and 
pushed upon the skin and the boat went down the stream 
so swiftly that the men could not reach it with their 


arrows. 



Adapa the Fisherman 


99 


At last they came again to the mouth of the river and 
Sura guided the boat to the island. And the women 
helped Sura carry the man ashore and the elder woman 
bound up the wounds of her husband and of Adapa 
while Sura gave them of the smoked fish to eat and brot 
water from the spring. 

Now when Sura saw that the young women were more 
beautiful than any that he had seen his heart grew warm 
within his breast, but when he saw that they looked at 
Adapa and not at him it grew cold again and he wished 
that the arrow had struck him instead of Adapa or that 
there was some way in which he might show his courage. 

As he mused there was a great outcry from the shore 
and the men who had pursued them came into view. 

After a tiipe one of them started to swim to the island, 
but Sura shot an arrow and the man turned and swam 
back. Then many of them swam towards the island at 
once and from many sides so that Sura could not keep 
them all back with his arrows, but a great fish came and 
devoured one of them and the rest were afraid. 

Then were Sura and Adapa and those who were with 
them glad, for they said, ^‘The men will not dare come 
near us for Ea hath sent a great fish out of the deep to 
fight for us.” 

But the pursuers made camp upon the shore and set 
a watch and Sirus, the daughter of Ninid, the wounded 
man, said to Adapa: ‘Tt is I whom they seek. Galash, 
their leader, sought me for wife, but I would not, for 
he is a cruel man and hath another wife in his hut, and 
tho he brot many presents, my father, Ninid, drove him 
away. Then he came with his men and tried to take 
me by force and my father fought with them and smote 


100 


Tales of Telal 


many of them. When he was wounded you came and 
we escaped. Now Galash lieth in wait for us, and there 
is not food on the island for so many. It is not good for 
us all to perish. Make a boat for me of reeds and push 
me out into the deep and when Galash seeth that I am 
no longer here he will leave you in peace.” 

And Adapa looked steadfastly at her and saw that 
she was very beautiful, with eyes like stars and hair 
like tasseled corn, and his heart clave to her. “Sirus, 
thou shalt not go; we will live together or die together. 
Ea, who hath planted a great love for thee in my heart, 
will show me how to find food for us and drive away 
thy pursuers and it shall go hard with Galash.” 

“But thou art wounded, Adapa; thy strength has not 
come to thee again and the hand that draws the bow 
still hangs by thy side.” 

“Love, Sirus, is stronger than hate, and Ea is stronger 
than Sat, the god of Evil whom Galash worships.” 

Now Adapa spoke brave words, but when day fol- 
lowed day and there was nothing to eat but a few mus- 
sels which grew on the shore of the island, his strength 
left him and fever took hold upon him and he lay upon 
a bed of reeds and Sirus gave him water from the spring 
and ministered to him, praying ever to Ea, “O Ea, help 
us ! O Ea, help us ! Our help is in thee !” 

In the early morning before the sun was up, Sirus sat 
by the side of Adapa praying and when she looked up 
she saw a spider’s web, wet with the dew of night and 
at the heart of it a spider, fat and well fed. And the 
Revealer said to her, “Learn wisdom from the spider. 
She spinneth her web and lieth in wait and her food 
cometh to her.” 


Adapa the Fisherman 


101 


And Sirus rose up quickly and called Sura. “Ea hath 
spoken to me; I have learned wisdom from the spider. 
Let us make a web for the fish. Bring me willow wands 
as long and slender as you can find.” 

When Sura had done so Sirus and her sister, Nuga, 
made a great basket like a net and bound the wands 
together with stout grass, far enough apart to let the 
water thru, but not the fish. Then they cut a skin coat 
in strips and made thongs which they fastened to the 
mouth of the basket. 

“Now take the boat of reeds and put the willow basket 
in it and push out to where the water from the river 
passes by the island, for I have seen fish there, but too 
deep for one to spear them or shoot them with an arrow.” 



So Sura and Nuga took the willow net and cast it 
into the water and dragged it behind the boat. For a 
long time they caught nothing, but when Sura put stones 


102 


Tales of Telal 


in the basket so that it sank deeper into the water, they 
caught many fish so that they could scarce bring their 
boat to shore. 

Then they built a fire and cooked the fish and ate 
and their strength came to them again. 

When Galash and his men saw the fire and smelled 
the smell of the fish upon it they tore their hair and 
made a great noise with their cursings and went their 
way and they saw them no more. 

And when Adapa’s fever had left him and his wound 
had healed, he took Sirus to wife and they became very 
cunning fishers. They and their children learned how 
to make nets of hemp twine and to make fish pots of 
willow reeds and to make fish hooks of bone. And there 
was no lack of food. 

So when their children and children’s children and 
those who came to them were many, they founded a city 
and called it Eridu, the city of Ea. 

“This,” said Telal, “is the story of Adapa the fisher- 
man.” “But it was Sirus to whom Ea showed how to 
make the willow snare for the fish,” said one of the young 
princes. “Yes,” answered Telal, “but Adapa was a 
man.” 

“That is not a reason,” said one among the princes. 

“Let us call it then the story of Adapa and Sirus, 
fishers,” answered Telal. 


IX. 


Sargani the Gardener 

Now Babylon was a city of gardens. When there was 
no room upon the ground because the houses crowded on 
one another, they made gardens upon the roofs of the 
great houses and upon the walls. And Telal took the 
young princes to the garden upon the walls of the temple 
of Marduk which was kept by the priests. 



When he had showed them the wonderful flowers and 
how water was brot from the river, they seated them- 
selves by a pool in which grew lotus lilies and he told 
them the story of Sargani the Gardener. 

In the days before Babylon became a great city, when 
men fought with the rivers to make land for their wheat 
and corn, no one cared for flowers. Even Akki the 
Irrigator cared no more for flowers than for the dust 
which he trod beneath his feet till Sargani taught him. 

In the city of Azupiran on the great river there lived 


104 


Tales of Telal 


a woman of the children of Sem who was more beautiful 
than any of the daughters of Shumer, and her name 
was Mira and there came a prince from the hill country 
of Elam who saw her and loved her and made her his 
wife. But when he took her to his home his brother 
was very angry. “For,” said he, “if my brother has 
seed and is slain in battle I shall lose the inheritance.” 

Now Sargani was born to Mira, but when he was 
still a child at the breast his father was killed in battle, 
and his mother feared greatly, for she knew that the 
brother of her husband would seek the child’s life. 

So Mira took Sargani by night and fled to the great 
river and hid among the reeds, and when she could no 
longer hide the child she made a basket of reeds and 
lined it with pitch. Then she made a bed of soft grasses 
and laid Sargani in it. 

And when Mira had wept much and prayed to El to 
guard her child and bring him to safety, she pushed the 
little boat into the river and went her way sorrowing. 

Now Akki the Irrigator added field to field and 
became rich and all men did him honor, but he had no 
son to inherit his wealth and therefore he was sorrowful 
as he walked by the river at eventide. “Ea,” cried he, 
“thou hast crowned me with riches and honor, and 
blessed my goings out and comings in, but I am a barren 
tree ; there is none to come after me.” 

And as Akki communed thus with himself and prayed 
he heard the wailing of a child crying for its mother, 
and he wondered greatly, for there was no one near. 
“It is a sign from Ea,” said he to himself, but the sound 
of the crying came nearer and nearer and seemed to 
come from the river itself. 


Sargani the Gardener 


105 


‘"Hath the river conceived and borne me a son?’' cried 
Akki, and he made his way to the edge of the water, 
where lo, within reach of his hand was a basket of reeds 
and in it a child. 



Then Akki took the child in his arms and it clung 
to him and found favor in his eyes. “Ea hath heard 
my prayer and given me a son.” 

So Akki took Sargani to his own home and cared for 
him as his own son. And Sargani grew and there was 
none in the land like him for strength and beauty. 
When he grew to years of understanding, Akki taught 
him all the wisdom of the fields, how to plant and care 
for the wheat and corn so that it should bring an hun- 
dredfold. 

Now Akki had a garden which was rich and well 
watered and there was no garden in the land like it and 
Marduk the king ate of the fruit of it. 

The garden was very dear to the heart of Akki, and 


106 


Tales of Telal 


when he grew old and sat all day at the door of the 
house, he made Sargani the gardener. Sargani grew 
in it fruits which delighted the king’s heart and the king 
honored him, but he was not satisfied. “The flowers of 
the field are more beautiful than the things which men 
eat. Why should I not minister to the hunger of the 
eyes as well as the hunger of the belly?” 

So Sargani sought out the most beautiful flowers of 
the field and brot them to his garden, watered and cared 
for them, and he sent messengers to far places, saying, 
“Fetch me more flower jewels and I will give you 
many rings of silver.” 

After a time the garden of Sargani became like a 
garden of the gods. There was a lotus pool in the 
center overhung by palms, and a wall of poppies about 
it and within it every flower that has beauty and 
fragrance. 

And Akki said to Sargani, “Thou art become a man; 
take unto thee a wife so that thy name shall be remem- 
bered in the gates.” But Sargani answered, “When I 
see a woman who is more beautiful than any flower 
in my garden, then will I seek her to wife.” 

Now Marduk the king had no son, but a daughter 
whose name was Ishtar. And he would not give her to 
any of the princes of other cities lest they conspire against 
him and take away his kingdom when he was old. 
So he said to his daughter Ishtar, “Choose thou from the 
young men of the city, one who is of honor and who 
finds favor in thine eyes, and he shall be as a son to me.” 

And Ishtar caused it to be known thru the city, “He 
that maketh the most beautiful gift to Ishtar shall be the 
king’s son.” 


Sargani the Gardener 


107 


So the young men of the city brot gifts of silver and 
gold and jewels of cunning workmanship, but Ishtar 
cared for none of them and sent them back, saying, “I 
have more beautiful things than these and I weary 
of them.” 

By and by the handmaiden of Ishtar said to her, “All 
the young men of Babylon have brot gifts but Sargani 
the son of Akki, whom the river bore to him.” 

“Who is this man who cares not to be a king’s son?” 
answered the princess. 

“He is a gardener. Like his father Akki he grows 
fruit for the king’s table, but he loves flowers as the 
bees do, and he hath in his garden all the flowers that 
grow, and they say that the gods come down to rest in it 
and delight themselves.” 

Then Ishtar was troubled and sent a servant who 
asked Sargani, “Why do not you make a present to 
Ishtar like the other young men of Argade ?” 

“Because it is the time of flowers and I cannot leave 
my garden,” answered Sargani. 

And Ishtar was very angry and said to her hand- 
maidens, “Let us go and see this digger in the dirt who 
is too busy to look up to a princess.” 

So they came to the garden of Sargani, but they came 
very quietly and Sargani did not see them. And Ishtar 
sat down by the lotus pool under the shade of the palms. 
The air was fragrant with the breath of flowers; birds 
sang in the branches ; the air was vibrant with the hum 
of honey-laden bees and flowers of rarest hue were 
everywhere. 

Ishtar waited and looked for Sargani, but he did not 
come and she fell asleep in the magic garden. 


108 


Tales of Telal 


Now Sargani had been watching the unfolding of a 
new flower in a hidden spot in the garden. When the 
flower was fully open he said, “There is nothing in the 
world so beautiful as this.” Then he took the pot in 
which the flower grew and carried it to the center of the 
garden and set it before the image of Ea, which was by 
the pool. 



When he looked up he saw Ishtar asleep upon the 
carved couch. A flower which she had plucked still lay 
in her fingers. Her face was like a lily half opened to 
the light. 

For a long time Sargani stood looking at her with 
wonder in his heart. “It is a daughter of the gods,” said 
he within himself. And he came near and knelt before 


Sargani the Gardener 


109 


her. “There is no flower in my garden half so beautiful 
as thou.” 

Then Ishtar opened her eyes and saw Sargani kneeling 
before her, and her face which had been as a lily became 
like a rose, and she sprang to her feet. 

“Stay,” cried Sargani, “I know not whether thou art a 
daughter of the gods or the queen of all the flowers 
become a woman. All my life I have sought for beauty 
in the flowers, but even the flower of Ea is pale beside 
thee. What can I give thee to make thee stay?” 

And Ishtar answered, “Give me the most beautiful 
flower in your garden.” And Sargani plucked the flower 
from before the image of Ea and gave it to her. 

“This,” said the princess, “is more beautiful than any 
of the gifts which the young men have offered to Ishtar.” 

Then Sargani knew that it was the king’s daughter and 
that he had found favor in her eyes. 

So Sargani became the king’s son and when Marduk 
died he reigned in his stead and Ishtar was his queen, and 
he conquered many people and became a great king and 
lived in a great palace, but he loved best to sit in his gar- 
den with the queen of the flowers. 

^ 5i« 5l« sjc :ie jK 

“But is not Ishtar a goddess and the queen of heaven?” 
asked one of the young princes. 

“That,” answered Telal, “is because she was so beauti- 
ful and Sargani loved her so much. Those who came 
after said she must have been one of the gods.” 


X. 


Tera Worshiper of Yahve (Jehovah) 



It was the time of full moon, and the young princes 
sat by the river’s bank in the garden of Telal and watched 
the shining eye of night as it opened upon the world. 
The silences of night were about them and even the 
distant murmurs of the city seemed to belong to another 
world. Study, play, work — the varied occupations of the 
week — sank below the horizon of thot, and vague wonder- 
ings and questionings rose with the stars. Whence? 
Whither? Why? How long had the moon god, father 
of the stars, looked down upon men and what had 
he seen? 

After a while one of the princes said to Telal, “Is Bel 
Marodach greater than Sin, the moon god?” “So say 
the people of Babylon,” answered Telal, “but the people 
of Ur declare that Sin is the greatest of all the gods. 
There are many cities and many gods.” 

“But what say you?” asked another. 

“I am the priest of Bel.” 



Tera Worshiper of Yahve 


111 


“Yes, we know that, but you have not told us who is 
the greatest of the gods.” 

For a long time Telal was silent, and they wondered if 
he were going to answer. Then he stirred as one waking 
from sleep, and took from his pouch which hung at his 
girdle three clay tablets. 

When they gathered about him he pointed to the first 
tablet and they read by the light of the moon, “la-a-ve- 
ilu.” On the second was the writing “la-ve-ilu” and on 
the third “la-um-ilu” — Yahve the Existing, the Enduring 
One. Yahve is god. 

“Is Yahve a greater one than Bel or Sin or Ea or any 
of the gods of the land?” cried the princes. 

“I will tell you the story of Tera, the worshiper of 
Yahve,” replied Telal, “and you shall judge for 
yourselves.” 

* * * * * 

Now Tera was one of the seekers. Like his fathers he 
was a shepherd and ever led his flocks to fresh pastures. 



112 


Tales of Telal 


When his father came from the west and mingled with 
the people of the land they worshiped one god whom 
they called El, but after awhile they forgot him and 
worshiped the gods of the land, and the father of Tera 
was a worshiper of Sin, the moon god. 

Each month, at the full of the moon as tonight, the 
father of Tera did obeisance to the moon and made 
sacrifice and prayed for the flock that they might find 
pasture and increase greatly, and Tera did likewise as his 
father taught him. 

But the heart of Tera was not satisfied. When he 
prayed to the moon there was no answer, and he kept 
asking, “Who is behind the moon?” The moon rose and 
set each night and waxed and waned each month. “The 
moon,” said Tera in his heart, “is not the shepherd but 
the sheep.” 

So wherever Tera went with his flocks he asked of the 
wise men, “Who is he who guides the moon and all the 
stars of heaven ? Who appoints their times and seasons ?” 
There were as many answers as there were gods in the 
land, but Tera replied, “You multiply words to 
hide your ignorance. I seek one who will tell me who 
shepherds the shining ones in the sky.” 

At last one said to Tera, in anger, “Who are you that 
goes about crying, ‘Show me'? Find for thyself and 
cease thy clamoring.” 

And Tera asked no more questions of the wise men, 
but in the stillness of the night he communed with himself 
and asked of the moon and stars, “Who guides you as I 
guide my flock? Tell me his name that I may worship 
him.” But there was no answer and the heart of Tera 
was heavy within him and sleep left his eyes and men 


Tera Worshiper of Yahve 


113 


said when they saw him, “Lo, the questioner cometh ; he 
is mad/’ 

. Now it came to pass that in his wanderings Tera came 
near to the mountain in the desert which is called Sinai, 
the mountain of the moon, and he pitched his tent there. 

And when the time of the full moon had come he 
looked up and asked as aforetime, “O Shining One, who 
leads you each night across the sky and makes you do his 
will ?” But again there was no answer. 

Then Tera looked up to the top of the mountain and 
it was very high and he said to himself, “Peradventure 
if I climb the mountain I shall be so near the heavenly 
ones that I can hear their voices.” 

The next day Tera said to those who were with him, 
“I go to the top of the mountain and I will not come down 
from thence till I have heard the answer to my question- 
ings.” And when he was gone up they mourned for 
him as one dead, for they said, “There is none to make 
answer.” 

When Tera came to the top of the mountain he said 
within himself, “It is so high I shall be able to reach even 
to the heaven and talk with the bright ones face to face.” 

But when the moon and the stars came out they were 
no nearer than before and Tera threw himself upon the 
ground and wept. “Verily Thou art one who hideth 
Thyself,” cried he. “I am weary of seeking for Thee, but 
my life is naught to me for I cannot find Thee.” 

Then came a great cloud and blotted out the stars and 
covered the mountain with darkness as a robe, and there 
was a great and terrible noise, and arrows of light came 
out of the blackness and broke the stones in pieces. 

And Tera was afraid and trembled greatly. “If the 


114 


Tales of Telal 



Great One is angry, let him take my life; I care as little 
for it as for a drop of water in the time of rains/^ But 
the arrows of light did not pierce him. 

After the storm there was a great stillness and Tera 
fell asleep. And there came to him a still small voice 
saying: “Thou hast sought for me far and near, high and 
low, and inquired of many men wise in their own conceits. 
Why hast thou not sought for me in thine own heart? 
Lo, wherever men are I am and the pure in heart shall 
find me. Thou hast kept thy heart clean; thou hast 
searched for me as for hidden treasure and now thou 
hast found me. Thou shalt be my prophet and make 
known to thy people that I alone am God and there is 
none beside me. And thou shalt call my name Yahve, 
the Enduring One. I will be with thee and uphold thee 
and put words into thy mouth and thou shalt be called 
the prophet of Yahve.” 


Tera Worshiper of Yahve 


115 


When Tera awoke, the dew of morning was upon the 
mountain and rejoicing filled his soul. “If I ascend to 
the heavens Thou art there; if I make my bed in the 
uttermost parts of the earth, even there Thy hand shall 
guide me and Thy right hand uphold me.” 

As Tera came down the mountain it was as if the world 
had been born again and he cried aloud, “The earth is 
Yahve’s and the fulness thereof.” And his people heard 
him while he was yet a long way off and they gathered 
together at the foot of the mountain. 

And when Tera came down to them his face shone so 
that they said, “He hath seen a god.” 



Then Tera spoke to them and said, “I have found Him 
whom I sought. His name is Yahve, the one who hath 
neither beginning nor end of days. The gods we have 
worshiped are but names. It is Yahve who hath made 
the earth and the heavens above it and every living thing. 
He dwells not in temples made by hands, but in the heart 


116 


Tales of Telal 


of man. He loves righteousness and hates iniquity and 
He loves men as a father loves his first-born.” 

Then at the word of Tera they gathered together the 
images of their gods and burned thern, crying, “Yahve 
only is God and Tera is his prophet.” 

And Tera journeyed back to Ur proclaiming Yahve as 
God and some believed him, but more said, “He proclaims 
a strange god. We are not better than our fathers,” and 
they drove him out from among them. 

And Tera became a wanderer, but wherever he went 
he took the name of Yahve with him and he caused many 
tablets to be made and put up pillars, and upon them he 
wrote the sacred name so that it should not be forgotten. 

“This tablet,” said Telal, “is one upon which Tera 
wrote the name of Yahve.” 

“But is Yahve then a greater god than Bel and Ea?” 
said one of the young princes, “and if so why do not we 
worship him?” “I will tell you a secret,” answered Telal, 
“and you must hide it in your bosoms lest the foolish ones 
mock or stone you. There is but one God, but men call 
him by many names and there be men so small that they 
cannot understand a great god so they make themselves 
little gods after their own likeness. We the wise ones 
know all this, but we hold our tongues. It is safer so.” 

For a time there was silence and then one of the young 
princes said, “It would be braver to be like Tera even tho 
men stoned you and drove you out.” But he spoke so 
softly that Telal did not hear him. 


The End 


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